Doctor Walmart will see you now

WITH HISXCVSCVSCVS long white coat, stethoscope, genially soothing manner and wonky eagerness to discuss “population health management” and “patient-centred” medicine, Ronald Searcy seems the Platonic ideal of a primary-care doctor. The most unusual thing about him is where he works: a compact facility complete with examination rooms, dentist’s office, phlebotomy lab and -ray room tucked into a Walmart in north-west Arkansas. Since 2019, Walmart has opened 32 of these “health centres” in five states; by the end of next year it plans to more than double that number, and expand into two more states.Walmart is not the only big company expanding its medical offerings. Earlier this year Amazon acquired One Medical, a concierge practice (meaning clients pay an annual membership fee) with offices in cities across America. Dollar General, a discount retailer, has set up a partnership with DocGo, which runs mobile health clinics, and has launched a pilot programme at three shops in Tennessee. Walgreens and , both retail pharmacies, have robust primary-care offerings; last year more than 5.5m patients visited a MinuteClinic, making it one of the biggest providers in the country, and earlier this year completed its acquisition of Oak Street Health, an elderly-focused primary-care provider with offices in 21 states. What do these companies see in the medical business? The answer, befitting America’s Byzantine and rent-filled health-care system, is both simple and complex.