Less than two weeks after the nation’s larger retailer and private employer decided it would discontinue health insurance for many part-time employees, the company announced its new health care centers would provide doctor visits for around $40, or as low as $4 for Walmart employees and their families.
The new plan, unveiled after the newest Walmart Care Clinic in Georgia opened last week, is currently only available at Walmart Care Clinics in Georgia, South Carolina and Texas, MarketWatch reports.
Reps for Walmart say the company’s set cost for an office visit is roughly half that of the standard in the United States. In addition to the discounted office visits, Walmart Care Clinics also provide $3 pregnancy tests and $8 cholesterol tests.
MarketWatch reports that Walmart’s newest venture has a wider scope than some retailer’s acute care clinics in that it also treats chronic conditions such as diabetes.
However, the only insurance programs Walmart Care Clinics accept at the moment are Medicare for the elderly and, in South Carolina and Georgia, Medicaid for low-income Americans.
While it’s unclear if Walmart will begin to roll out the clinics nationwide, the company currently leases space in its stores to 94 other clinics owned outside of the company. Those clinics set their own prices.
The new health care offerings may be a small consolation for the 30,000 part-time employees who lost their health insurance earlier this month.
“Like every company, Walmart continues to face rising health care costs,” Sally Welborn, the company’s senior vice president of global benefits said at the time of the announcement. “This year, the expenses were significant and led us to make some tough decisions as we begin our annual enrollment.”
Wal-Mart’s new everyday low price: A $40 doctor visit [MarketWatch]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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