Report: Walmart and Humana May Be Deepening Their Partnership

Walmart may be looking to wade deeper into the healthcare pool—including, potentially, offering urgent care services—by working more closely with Humana, according to an article published in The New York Times. The report says unnamed sources don’t expect Walmart to take over Humana outright. More likely, the deal will manifest in a financial and operating partnership focused on prescription drug sales and/or insurance coverage. It could also be the basis for opening urgent care centers inside Walmart stores down the road, some analysts conjecture. The two companies have been cobranding a prescription drug plan for Medicare beneficiaries since 2010.  While many retailers tend to focus on engaging millennial customers, Walmart’s “typical” customer is 50-years-old. Humana would expect to see greater enrollment by virtue of the partnership, while Walmart’s hope would be to drive more traffic in its roughly 4,700 retail locations. One challenge pointed out by Times sources: Neither Humana nor Walmart has much experience in providing healthcare directly.