Trends: the Wal-Martization of Health Care
Allow me to initiate a discussion that’s only tangentially related to selling insurance.
I'll start with a question: Would you be willing to get medical treatment at your local Wal-Mart or Target?
So-called “retail clinics” are popping up in strip malls and box stores across the country. Taking up as much floor space as the video section and located adjacent to the mini Taco Bell, they offer care to anyone who walks in and is able to pay. Most of the care, it seems, is provided by nurse practitioners, not doctors.
States, meanwhile, are struggling to keep up. They want to ensure that there is some oversight and that the bargain-basement care is up to snuff.
What do you think of this trend? Is this the wonderful free market at work, offering vital a service where there is currently a lack?
Or should mega stores like Target and Wal-Mart just stick to selling plastic stuff at rock-bottom prices?
And, to bring this back into the insurance realm, what do you think health insurers will make of these retail clinics?
Related:
AMA Calls for Investigation of Retail Clinics
States Roll Out Retail-Clinic Rules
Comments
I love the idea of an easy to reach clinic that is competing for my business.
We have never had free competition for medical care givers. The AMA keeps a lid on the supply side of the physicians, so each physcian is chronically over paid. (not sure why this doesn't work for nurses too --- they should be overpaid as well given the limited supply.)
Now, how those health care visits would be scrutinized by the health insurance business is a good question, but it seems that insurance would benefit too, if they didn't have to pay those atrageous medical invoices either.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 13, 2007 10:29 PM
Great points, Anonymous!
I had never thought of the AMA as a kind of cartel, but the evidence points to that being the case. It's clear that the organization hasn't exactly welcomed the new competition from these retail clinics...
My only concern is that people get adequate care, so I think it's a good idea that states have taken an interest. I'm all for cheap, accessible health care, but not if that means it's cheap, accessible quackery.
Posted by: Jeb | October 15, 2007 09:03 AM