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.