Walgreens is opening extra Well being Nook areas by a cope with Blue Defend of California. On the devoted areas, it might present medical care that is billed to the insurer.
Blue Defend of California
At Walgreens shops in California, the pharmacy chain is previewing the way it plans to grow to be a spot the place extra clients go for medical care — not simply prescriptions.
Walgreens Boots Alliance stated Wednesday that it’ll develop the variety of shops within the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas with so-called Well being Corners, which presents medical care in affiliation with well being insurer Blue Defend of California. It has opened 12 Well being Nook areas in California and plans to open eight extra by mid-year.
Well being Corners are discrete areas in shops the place a registered nurse or pharmacist can schedule a mammogram, display screen a affected person for hypertension or diabetes or assist arrange a high-tech medical system.
Dr. Sashi Moodley, chief medical officer of Walgreens Well being, stated Well being Corners act as “connective tissue which might be conserving these sufferers on monitor, particularly after they’re between physician’s visits.”
These new companies are being supplied in “health-care deserts” which have few physician’s places of work and a predominant variety of sufferers with continual situations like diabetes, Moodley stated.
Blue Defend reimburses billable companies that the well being advisor offers to its members. Clients who aren’t coated by the insurer also can get choose companies from a Well being Nook, however for Blue Defend members there is a longer checklist of accessible well being companies and no copay.
Thus far, the 9,000-store chain has opened a complete of 48 Well being Corners, together with 36 in New Jersey, the place it has a cope with Clover Health. It is seeking to have 100 areas by year-end.
Walgreens declined to share monetary phrases or the size of the offers.
The growth with the insurers forms part of the company’s strategy to push into well being care, as corporations from Amazon to Capsule drain its typical gross sales of shampoo, ache relievers and prescriptions.
Walgreens has made a number of acquisitions, together with turning into the bulk proprietor of VillageMD, a main care firm, which is opening physician’s places of work linked to the chain’s shops. As well as, it is opening robot-powered fulfillment centers throughout the nation, which assist fill prescriptions and liberate pharmacists’ time to offer extra medical care.
Rival CVS Health additionally is popping some shops into health-care locations by including extra companies and medical gadgets and increasing a brand new retailer format referred to as a HealthHub. CVS owns well being insurer Aetna and directs members to MinuteClinic areas, that are situated in shops.
Its many retailer areas make the Walgreens deal interesting, D.D. Johnice, vice chairman of the Well being Transformation Lab at Blue Defend of California, stated in a information launch. It should “make these sources obtainable nearer to dwelling” and “provide extra satisfying and handy assist to our members and their households,” she stated.
Every Well being Nook location shall be staffed by a Walgreens pharmacist or a nurse and can embody a personal room and a “tech bar,” Moodley stated.
Moodley stated Walgreens can drive down health-care prices for insurers by interacting with sufferers extra regularly on the Well being Nook areas. Almost 80% of the U.S. inhabitants lives inside 5 miles of a Walgreens retailer, and plenty of of its common clients are seniors, caregivers and individuals who juggle a number of medical situations, which implies they typically see their pharmacist greater than their physician as they retrieve prescriptions, he stated.
“You possibly can solely affect sufferers you could have interaction and that is a important purpose why we expect we’re so well-positioned,” he stated.
