Walmart continued its expansion into the healthcare realm when on Thursday the company purchased the telehealth provider MeMD and plans to offer virtual healthcare services to customers and employees.
Walmart’s plan to expand into the virtual healthcare market is in response to Amazon beginning to offer health care services to employees through their platform known as Amazon Care. Amazon Care has begun to offer virtual healthcare services to employees in Washington state but intends on expanding the provider to reach employees across the nation. Walmart is attempting to imitate this service with the new purchase of MeMD and offer their own virtual healthcare service to employees as both companies plan to expand further and begin offering these services to customers.
Large companies across the country have taken an interest in providing affordable healthcare as the cost of healthcare continues to be a hot topic for most Americans. Other organizations have attempted to offer healthcare services in the past as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. began their own campaign in 2018 but ultimately failed as pilot projects were unable to achieve much success. Other, more successful attempts can be seen by Walgreens and CVS in which both companies began offering telehealth services during the pandemic as well as intend on attaching affordable doctors’ offices onto most of their stores in the coming years.
Source: Bloomberg
