Retail

It’s self-explanatory that high incidence of seasonal respiratory conditions and infections equate to higher patient volumes and related revenue. Consequently, overdependence on those levels to maintain financial viability is perilous, to say the least. While this is a concern in urgent care, in the retail drugstore business where over-the-counter remedies account for a significant portion of the profit margin, it can be a make-or-break proposition. Just look at what Walgreens is going through right now. …

JUCM News know that Walmart has been throwing the proverbial spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks as they struggle to break the U.S. healthcare marketplace. Besides traditional retail clinics, the company has spent generously in trying to gain a foothold in telehealth and even medical research. They’ve also tried to buy into the primary care space in a significant way. The latter seems to be the object of the company’s attention again, though …

As JUCM News readers know, after years of spending billions on initiatives to break into the primary care market, retail drug chains have taken one step after another in the opposite direction. Just last week we pointed you to an article published by Home Health Care News that revealed home care has become the flavor of the month for some chains. Well, it may literally be the same month but there’s already another flavor on …

Retail chains like CVS and Walgreens have plopped down billions of dollars to try to capture a piece of the primary care marketplace. It hasn’t gone well. So, as noted in a new article published by Home Health Care News, they’re trying a different, less competitive approach: home care. In the case of CVS Health, that meant again digging deep to buy an established enterprise, specifically Signify Health. And they’re open to buying more such …

As we reported recently, Walgreens keeps buying properties to enhance its efforts to capture business in the primary care sector. Now, as reported by Healthcare Dive, Walmart Health says it’s going to open 28 new locations next year, including two in Missouri and Arizona—fresh territory for them. If they follow through, that will bring the total number of WH locations in the country to 75 since launching in 2019. It appears their niche will be …

As JUCM News readers know, Walgreens is among the many retail drugstores and big box merchants trying desperately to break into the primary care medicine industry. It appears they’re among the most willing to invest heavily in that crusade, too. It was only a few months ago that we told you about the company’s dream of establishing a thousand clinics in its drugstores over the next 5 years. Now, as reported by Healthcare Finance News, …

Just last week we told you that Montana is the latest U.S. state to consider granting pharmacists more authority to prescribe medications directly to patients in certain circumstances. Physician groups have protested, suggesting that the difference in training pharmacists receive vs what physicians and advanced-practice providers go through makes that prospect a patient-safety issue. There’s another, more basic question, though: How are pharmacists supposed to handle yet another important task when they’re already stretched to …

Chain drugstores continue to invest heavily in their quest to capture more primary care and urgent care patients. As JUCM News readers know, only a month or so ago CVS announced it was buying Signify, a home healthcare provider, for roughly $8 million. That was just the appetizer course, though, as it’s been revealed the company is investing $100 million in Carbon Health, a primary care and urgent care company. At the same time, Becker’s …