Sun. Apr 28th, 2024

Imagine having an enormous amount of money and taking that cash and betting red on the roulette wheel, except there are only a few red slots and the rest are black. That was Walgreens’s chances when they went all in on VillageMD.

Walgreens is closing its remaining VillageMD primary care clinics in Florida. 

The company is exiting the Florida market, a VillageMD spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Helathcare. About 40 clinics in the Tampa and Orlando areas will close March 15. 

The announcement does not come as a total surprise, as Walgreens first disclosed its plans to close 60 underperforming VillageMD clinics and exit five markets last fall.

What about the patients in those clinics?

“We are supporting our patients during this transition including giving them resources of where they can receive care, access their medical records and answer their questions.”

Resources to receive care? That’s funny. How many clinics out there are taking new patients? Good luck.

I talked about part of this story a month ago but it bears repeating with this new information about Florida. Just imagine if the billion dollars were available to family doctors to cover their salary and practice buildout for 18 months as they started their own DPC practice. Call it seed money. I predict 90% of family doctors would jump at the chance to leave the chains of employment and try to make it on their own and the stats say 90% would succeed.

It would be a lovely day.

179950cookie-checkWalgreens Now Closing All of Its Florida VillageMD Clinics
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By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

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