If Walmart Can’t Do It, Who Can? Ummmm….DPC Can!!

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Here is an interesting article in Managed Healthcare Care Executive that I found fascinating. It’s called If Walmart Can’t Do It, Who Can? about why they closed 51 health clinics and its telehealth operations. Some opinions included the following:

  • Primary care is a really difficult tier in the supply chain
  • Providing primary care services is costly because it is labor-intensive
  • When compared with health systems, “retailers don’t create a repeated need to go in for care,” Trzcinski says. Instead, it’s “transactional. You’re not necessarily building up a relationship like you might with a primary care doctor.”
  • The hope had been that “Walmart had the scale to deliver a consistent primary care model to rural America.”
  • The lack of good primary care in rural areas will force residents to again drive to bigger towns and cities for care
  • All of which makes people wait for care when they probably shouldn’t be waiting.

I find this interesting because Direct Primary Care solves most, if not all, of this.

  1. Primary care is not difficult for well-trained physicians
  2. Primary care (DPC) is not costly
  3. DPC is about relationships with patients and not transactional
  4. DPC is in rural America and patients don’t have to drive to bigger towns and cities
  5. There is no waiting when you have a DPC membership

I know no system is perfect. And yes, there is a cost for a DPC membership but it is PEANUTS as compared to the cost of insurance.

If Walmart can’t do it then who can? DPC can.

About Douglas Farrago, MD

Dr. Farrago is a retired family physician based in Forest, Virginia. Since 2021, he has run DPCnews.com, a leading resource for the Direct Primary Care (DPC) movement. He is the author of three best-selling 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 Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) In 2016, Dr. Farrago conceived the idea for the Direct Primary Care Alliance and co-founded the organization alongside other pioneering DPC physicians. He is widely recognized as a leading expert in the DPC model and frequently lectures to medical students, residents, and practicing physicians on how to successfully start and run their own DPC practices.Dr. Farrago sold his Direct Primary Care practice in October 2020 but continues to receive care there as a patient.