Walmart will close all of its clinics and its virtual care platform in a sharp reversal of its five-year-old health center strategy.
The retailer attributed the shutdown of its Walmart Health unit, which involves closing 51 clinics across five states, to a challenging reimbursement environment and escalating operating costs, making the business model unsustainable. Walmart declined to share closing dates for individual centers, but a spokesperson said some clinics will remain open for up to 90 days.
Related: Walmart Health scales back clinic expansion plans for 2024
The centers provided primary care, dental, behavioral health, lab, X-ray and telehealth services. Walmart did not specify how many employees will be affected.
Walmart said it will continue to operate its approximately 4,600 pharmacies and more than 3,000 vision centers.
Earlier this month, Walmart said it would scale back expansion plans in 2024, but still planned to open 22 centers in two states this year. Plans included adding eight health centers in the Houston metro area, 10 in the Dallas/Fort Worth region and four in the Kansas City market by the end of the year. It opened three of the planned Houston centers a couple weeks ago.
In 2023, Walmart Health added 17 centers in Florida across the Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando metropolitan areas.
Walmart, which began opening health centers in 2019, has been one of several retailers expanding into healthcare services with mixed results. Walgreens-backed VillageMD, a primary care provider, is closing nearly 50% of its clinics after taking a $5.8 billion hit on the investment.
Other retailers are forging ahead. Amazon's One Medical, also a primary care provider, has its eye on more expansion this year with plans to potentially add 15 centers to its footprint. CVS' Oak Street Health is on track to add 50 to 60 Oak Street clinics in 2024.
