For all the complaints concerning the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamney Care), it is clear that the addition of up to 30 million new people to the rolls of the health insured is going to be big for in-store clinics. The opportunity is pretty clear: many pockets of the country have high concentrations of doctors while others find MDs few and far between.
Ultimately, there are too few doctors, even before the act's full implementation, to handle many of the common wellness and minor medical issues of Americans on a timely basis. That's where in-store clinics come in.
Today, most clinics offer a cheap and convenient means to deal with run-of-the-mill complaints and handle tasks such as blood pressure checks, inoculations and physicals. Retailers and clinic operators are picking up the pace of openings, with estimates putting the number of clinics in operation at 3,000 in 2016, rising from roughly 1,350 at the present time, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.
Today, CVS Caremark has the greatest number of clinics with around 650 MinuteClinics followed by Walgreens with 350 TakeCare Clinics. Walmart currently has 150 and Kroger has 87 Little Clinics. While late to the game, Target is also opening clinics in some of its stores.
Although retailers are not looking to replace family care physicians, some clinics have indicated that they may pursue treatment of some chronic diseases such as adult onset diabetes. This, as might be expected, has raised the ire of some physicians already wary of the competition.
"Nurse practitioners can do a fine job managing many chronic conditions, but if someone has a more complex problem, they might need to refer to a doctor," Catherine Dower, a healthcare researcher at UC San Francisco, told the Times.
"Clinics are not isolated add-ons to the drug store format; they are an integral part of the corporate purpose of the two major drug chains, Walgreens and CVS," said Roy White, RetailWire editor-at-large in a discussion on the site back in May of this year. "Both these chains have oriented themselves very publicly and very forcefully into companies that are the go-to resource for pharmacy, remedial health and health maintenance. ... The in-store clinics are an important part of this vision, and, as such, will receive the resources and support to grow."