Photo: Best Buy Health
Will Best Buy cash in on healthcare by sticking to what it does best?
Best Buy has found a different way to get in on the healthcare trend that has seen Amazon.com, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and others offer in-person and/or telehealth services for various medical conditions treated in a primary care setting.
The consumer electronics retailer said it was partnering with Atrium Health to provide and install devices enabling patients to get hospital care while remaining at home. Atrium will buy the devices from Best Buy and the retailer’s Geek Squad will handle installation and retrieval when patients complete their care.
Atrium closed a merger with Advocate Aurora Health in December to create Advocate Health, the fifth largest healthcare system in the U.S. with 67 hospitals and more than 1,000 healthcare offices across six states. Atrium Health is part of Advocate Health.
“We knew Atrium Health was the right partner to help tackle the unique challenges within the care at home experience,” said Deborah Di Sanzo, president of Best Buy Health, in a statement. “We’re excited to leverage our expertise in omnichannel, supply chain, Caring Center support and services, in-home support and our ability to connect patients and providers through Current Health’s care at home platform. Those strengths, combined with Atrium Health’s extensive clinical expertise and deep experience leading in virtual care, will help us improve and enable care in the home for everyone.”
“Our partnership with Best Buy Health will help change the lives of our patients and consumers, giving them access to the tools and experiences they need to receive care in the comfort of their own home,” said Dr. Rasu Shrestha, chief innovation and commercialization officer at Advocate Health. “Our surveys show high levels of patient satisfaction for our hospital at home experience and the use of virtual care is a valuable tool in our efforts to eradicate both economic and geographic disparities in accessing health care services. Together with Best Buy Health, we will combine our strengths to provide better outcomes and equitable access for patients who will receive their care in the home.”
Best Buy Health is focused on enabling medical care at home with three focus areas: wellness, aging and care. The company’s Lively brand offers devices, health and safety services, and Caring Centers to help adults live independently. Best Buy’s Current Health platform has been developed to improve the care-at-home experience through remote patient monitoring, telehealth and patient engagement.
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: How do you assess Best Buy’s approach to cashing in on the health and wellness market opportunity? What is your take on the approaches being taken by other large retailers, including Amazon.com, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, et al.?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Retailers are shaking the medical industry up, and their collective efforts will ultimately reshape the delivery and access to medical services and products in the future. Healthcare is a multi-trillion dollar market, and so large companies looking to grow can’t ignore it. While I see a strong connection between Best Buy and medical technology, I’m not sure that their brand fits best for medical care in general.
The descriptions of the arrangement with Atrium Health suggest to me that it is more of a contracting arrangement than a partnership. Best Buy is not in “healthcare.” They are simply providing equipment and services to Atrium. It will be Atrium’s face that the patient sees.
The plans for healthcare from CVS and Walgreens are considerably more expansive than those of Best Buy. Walmart could challenge the drug chains to a degree. Amazon is already in the home, and its technological wherewithal could change how we think about healthcare.
It would not surprise me to see Best Buy Health be sold, perhaps to Atrium.
I think your observation is 100 percent accurate, Gene. I have trouble thinking about Best Buy as a destination for home health equipment. These products are not shopped and purchased like any of the other consumer-facing products that Best Buy is used to selling. There’s really no marketing or price comparison. This does feel like a service contract arrangement.
I always struggle when any company takes on a business that’s outside of its core competency and is not aligned with its value proposition. This feels like one of those examples. We shall see.
I’ve long been advocating for Best Buy to get into healthcare. Best Buy has methodically assembled a powerful ecosystem of wellness and aging at home products but has yet to show the consumer these products as a cohesive story in the context of improving quality of wellness at home. From their senior-friendly phone system Great Call, to hearing products, fall detection, monitoring cameras, communication devices, health monitors and more, putting these products together in an in-store demo environment would offer a powerful tool for other medical and health services to partner with for improved quality of life for customers, and profits for Best Buy.
I guess there must be a large generation getting older and in need of these services. I wonder which generation that might be. 🙂
Seriously, I think it’s a good thing to bring healthcare out to the masses BUT — no market is infinite and it’s starting to get really crowded in there.
Best Buy is modernizing healthcare to support patient care in the comfort of our own homes. By digitally connecting residences with health providers, Best Buy provides a lifeline for prompt care.
Retail leaders are investing in healthcare, as the system urgently needs efficient, patient-centric innovation.
Retailers are filling in the gaps left by huge healthcare systems, insurance companies and the government. I think some will do really well simply out of consumer desperation. The big worry to me is the same as with Big Pharma: the for-profit model. If Best Buy or others are simply out to make more revenue/profit vs. actually helping people, we’re back in the same boat. But if they REALLY care about people, creating new options and better ways to do things, then this could be fantastic. Guess we’ll find out soon enough if we have a win-win or a “meh.”
There is no branding “fit” here. I can see this working if they go to market as Atrium, with Best Buy as a white label brand “installing the stuff” you need for at-home medical care. Or maybe as a partner to Atrium with Atrium taking the lead. At any rate, there is a bit of a gold rush with different companies trying to lower cost and increase access — so while I remain concerned about the branding fit I do not think it will matter much, this effort will be positive for both companies.
Healthcare is being disrupted for sure! Given the demand to bring health care closer to consumers, Best Buy’s store infrastructure and in-home services team and expertise and the cyclic buying cycle for consumer electronics, it makes perfect sense for Best Buy to jump into this market with an established partner.
I like this idea, but I don’t know how many additional partners Best Buy needs. More than Atrium? Certainly. How many more? The jury is still out.
This approach is different from what other retailers are doing and is consistent with Best Buy’s focus on technology. Often specific tech devices are required for specific lengths of time after a hospital stay. The number of Best Buy outlets will help Atrium Health’s coverage, the Geek Squad involvement will help with the setting up and use of tech equipment, especially when patients are not feeling well, and will help with the retrieval process. This sounds like a good partnership if the details work smoothly.
I’m not highly excited by this although Best Buy seems to be a good fit with the need. Why aren’t I excited? It seems a bit awkward in implementation. Is its primary value giving Atrium Health access to feet in the street? It is a bit hard to know. Also the more awkward of a fit, the less likely these efforts are to establish a foothold in health for Best Buy. Hopefully, though, it’s good learning they can use to mount a better future effort.
Best Buy has been intentionally focused on broadening their healthcare-focused portfolio of products and I love the idea of tapping into Best Buy’s Geek Squad to assist with their installation in a home environment. Recovery-at-Home™ is a huge opportunity as the landscape of healthcare delivery evolves (in fact, HRG has recently conducted research in this area.
I applaud both Atrium Health and Best Buy for recognizing unfilled gaps in the market and expanding on Advocate Health’s hospital at home program. This will provide patients and their caregivers peace of mind and access to tools and resources that should enhance better health outcomes.
Superficially it sounds great. “Leverage our expertise”… it’s all electronics, right? Actually, no, it isn’t. As the previous part of the comment, “unique challenges” seems to recognize medical care is a liability minefield, and though I’m not familiar with exactly what devices we’re talking about, I would naturally be worried that the issues that might arise are a lot different than when a TV isn’t hooked up properly. Perhaps I’m being unduly pessimistic — I hope I am — but I wouldn’t be shocked if this ends up not going very far.