The Battle For Retail Health At Your Drugstore

It's no secret that healthcare is changing, and retail pharmacies are at the forefront of this change. We have seen a rise in co-branded pharmacies and healthcare clinics in recent years. Last year, Walgreens announced that they have partnered with primary-care provider VillageMD to open 500 to 700 clinics at Walgreens sites across the country over the next five years. They are on track to open 200 co-branded primary care practices by the end of this year.

On Wednesday, the companies launched their first clinic in a new North Florida market, Jacksonville, increasing their overall number of markets in the state to three, including Orlando and Tampa. This summer, Walgreens and VillageMD will create five additional Village Medical at Walgreens primary care clinics in the Jacksonville region.

What's The Future

The battle is heating up in this area as CVS Health has been building its model with MinuteClinics. Walmart is in a hybrid model of building out their clinics internally and testing out a few partnerships, including one in the Dallas market with Oak Street Health.

Is this is an area for health systems to tackle and partner vs. building it alone themselves? It is a strategy to close the loop on the journey towards leading population health.