Walmart announced it has entered into agreements with a healthcare payer and a network of hospitals, with the stated aim of improving patient care coordination.
According to an announcement from Walmart Health—the retailer’s healthcare division—the agreements with insurer Ambetter Health and the Orlando Health community hospital network would allow central Florida residents in seven counties to obtain coordinated care and seek referrals for services as long as they’re covered by the Ambetter Value Plan.
Walmart Health offers primary care services both in-person and virtually, including dental and behavioral health plus labs, X-rays, EKGs and more. However, its limited specialty practice model leaves gaps that this agreement with Orlando Health is designed to fill.
“By collaborating with Walmart Health and focusing on care coordination in the shared patient populations, we’ll be better positioned to more quickly identify patient needs and improve outcomes together in the Orlando area,” Cary D’Ortona, senior vice president at Orlando Health, said in a statement.
The deal marks the first agreement Walmart has made with a health system to facilitate coordinated patient care, the statement says. Last year Walmart Health did enter into a value-based reimbursement agreement with UnitedHealthcare, which also provided Walmart Heath centers in Florida and Georgia with data analytics support aimed at cost containment and improving patient outcomes.
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