Walgreens has been changing medical practices in this country without even knowing what it was doing at first. What am I talking about? How about the fact that many of the 50 million or so uninsured Americans go to Walgreens Urgent Care clinics for much of their care. This has ravaged many of the private urgent care clinics and even the primary care centers.
In an interview with Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6185LY20100209) Greg Wasson the CEO of Walgreens says he believes that health reform has begun in spite of the government dropping the ball.
“Regardless of what comes out, the horse is out of the barn. Reform is occurring in this country today, I’ve supported the president’s goal of health reform. I do think we need health reform in this country, but what is exciting me is what is taking place already and the opportunity we have to play a role in that,” Wasson said.
After the great swine flu pandemic so to speak of last year, Walgreens has transformed itself into a primary community health center accross the country.
Regardless of what happens with the health reform bills, Washington is going to become the primary payer for health care in this country, and more so everyday.
But if you have been to a primary care doctor or urgent care clinic, you will notice that it seems like the traffic in these offices might be cut in half. This is a good thing, as imagine a Costco of health care taking over, a sort of medical mall at discount prices. This is the one trick that has yet to be tried. Further, imagine this medical mall offers a health insurance policy with access to any of the providers in the mall.
Wasson readily admits to his plans in this interview, “the states across the country are challenged. One of the things I think we can do is work with states to help reduce their cost of Medicaid. We could offer convenient, low-cost healthcare through our clinics,” he said.
They are now even offering free diabetes testing as a way of further branding these clinics.
Still while he might claim that reform is already taking place, what he is missing is that tonight, more people will go to sleep without access to basic health care then ever before, and that no matter how many free diabetes tests Walgreens gives away this ain’t changing.
Wasson has already started shaping Walgreens to begin its bid to turn its 7,160 locations into a health provider.
How that looks may vary according to the needs of the community.
For example, in some urban stores in places like Chicago that have so-called food deserts — in which fresh foods are scarce and overpriced — the company is expanding its fresh foods offerings to include fruits and vegetables even as it brings back beer and wine and continues to stock tobacco.
It’s sad that Rite Aid, Walgreens and other pharmacies are the go-to medical establishments for so many Americans. How can Walgreens run a system that is superior and more affordable than a private practice or government-run institution? That says a lot about our health care system.