What if Wal-Mart decided to get into medical tourism?

Posted August 22nd, 2007 by David Williams

Wal-Mart should consider getting into the medical tourism market. This suggestion is premature but not far-fetched.

Why?

  • First, there is a great deal of overlap between Wal-Mart's customer and employee base -think about the $4 cash-paying generic drug buyers- and prospective medical tourists. They represent the large and expanding group of people who don't have insurance coverage but don't qualify for Medicaid
  • Wal-Mart customers tend to be more rural than average. That coincides with geographies that have a shortage of physicians. Furthermore, those geographies have a high concentration of foreign born physicians. Chances are good that these customers are already seeing doctors from India!
  • Wal-Mart has experience with suppliers in far-flung, low cost markets. Obviously these suppliers are very different from overseas hospitals and clinics, but Wal-Mart would at least have a head start
  • Wal-Mart can bring scale and process efficiency to the relationships, ensuring continued low costs and consistent performance. I worry that if insurance companies start to cover medical tourism they will drive up costs abroad in ways that Wal-Mart wouldn't
  • Wal-Mart's in-store health clinics could provide a natural link to foreign specialists
  • Wal-Mart is intent on contributing to solutions to the US health care cost crisis

File this suggestion away for a few years and let's see what happens.

‹ Need Ideas.

It definitely makes a lot of sense

On August 28th, 2007 AlisonHope says:

At present it seems to be the better informed / more research-savvy patients who are considering medical tourism, however it is just a matter of time before the concept becomes more widely accepted.


Alison Hope


www.statmedica.com



Good points, and food for

On August 27th, 2007 josefwoodman says:

Good points, and food for thought.  I particularly like the idea of in-store clinic networks (e.g WalMart Walgreens, Duane Reade, et al) teaming up with international provider networks (e.g. Apollo, Parkway, Raffles et al), to offset the more expensive, time-consuming diagnoses and surgeries not available on a walk-in basis. 

And you're right-the demographic is a match!

Josef Woodman

www.patientsbeyondborders.com