In a word, yes. They already do. Many primary care physicians utilize nurse practitioners or physician assistants already. I’m not saying that there isn’t a need for the sniffles attendant, school physical, etc., but these quickie healthcare marts are a recipe for disaster. Wal-Mart Plans to Enter Health Care Market.
“We have a massive primary-care problem that will be made worse by health reform,” says Ian Morrison, a Menlo Park, Calif-based health-care consultant. “Anyone who has a plausible idea on how to solve this should be allowed to play.”
Really Mr. Morrison? We have all known that ObamaCrapCare will mean further rationing. I don’t believe that this is a solution to help any patient.
In-store medical clinics, such as those offered by Wal-Mart and other retailers, could also be players in another effort in the health law: encouraging collaborations of doctors and hospitals who want to win financial rewards for streamlining care and lowering costs. Such collaborations, known as “accountable care organizations,” might contract with in-store medical clinics, says Paul Howard, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He has studied retail clinics, some of which have recently expanded to offer services beyond simple tests and vaccinations, such as helping monitor patients with diabetes or high blood pressure.
Accountable care organizations? Now that is a scary term. These groups are chosen based on tying provider reimbursements to quality metrics. “Quality metrics” is another very ugly term. How are these providers chosen? What criteria is used? I’ll tell you…the cheapest guy in town. Quality? What does that mean? Has anyone ever questioned how these “preferred” docs and facilities are chosen?
“Maybe Wal-Mart can deliver a lot of this stuff more cheaply because it is an expert at doing this with other types of widgets, but health care is not a widget and managing individual human beings is not nearly as simple as selling commercial products to consumers,” says Ann O’Malley, a physician and senior health researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.
Thank you for stating the obvious. Who wins in all of this muckety muck? The insurance company’s stockholder. Who loses? The human in need.
November 9, 2011 at 3:44 pm
it was bad enough when they were allowed to start selling food, and then Target etc did as well. This is completely crazy. What do you want to bet next they’ll be in the real estate business?
November 10, 2011 at 7:45 am
Read the Appendix on page 14 to see all the chronic care, diagnostic care, preventive care, health and wellness care, and acute care services they want to offer.
November 10, 2011 at 10:51 am
That is just nuts. The government should never allow this sort of encroachment of one business type upon another; it violates anti-trust laws and it never works out well for the customer.
November 10, 2011 at 11:23 am
The DOJ can fix it Nom.
November 9, 2011 at 6:49 pm
I remembe the slimy, revolting MD’s who worked for various Boards of Education in cities where I taught.Not one of them was anyone I’d allow to diagnose or treat me. In fsct, I woulsn’t let them shine my shoes. Now the Bd of Ed MD rejects can be Walmart docs. Andmost of them, of course, will be grads of U of Islamabad.
November 9, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Many physicians that are close to retirement age are leaving. Mary, they are leaving in droves. What we will have is a scary situation. Let’s take a small growth on skin. If, and when the doc / nurse practitioner sees it, they might not do what is the standard of care. Since their goal is to not spend money, they might freeze or shave off the growth. That simple growth might be a primary tumor that will resurface a few years later as it morphs into another possible malignant tumor. Not all growths are warts. So, how many years did someone wait to take care of a problem that was doable a few years prior instead of becoming a death sentence? I see great problems coming down the pike.
November 9, 2011 at 9:28 pm
McN,
This is very grim. And I’m serious about MD’s from Third World countries fillinf the empty places. My mother and aunt went to an HMO in NY years ago staffed by such; Scary was the word, and scary is on the horizon.
btw, the migration of doctors from “there” creates not only a brain drain in countries whee brains ar most needed, but even worse medical care than they have now in those places..
November 10, 2011 at 7:16 am
That is why a foreign medical student entrance is given before they can work here in the states. Many do not pass the first go around. It is very scary. If you don’t have someone to advocate for you, I see quick steamrolling to the grave.
November 10, 2011 at 10:55 am
well, and combine that with the plan to give rich foreigners a free visa if they’ll buy up US property: they’ll be taking our jobs and simultaneously acting as our landlords; then they’ll take that money and buy congress-tools to allow even more of them here.
. And if you complain, you get to be labeled as a racist-nazi-white supremacist and/or nationalist-terrorist.
November 10, 2011 at 11:23 am
That is correct…the racist name calling begins.
November 10, 2011 at 6:53 am
WalMart sucks, plain and simple. And people in this town are crazy. I keep an eye on prices- and WalMart groceries are roughly 20% higher on non “sale” items that the regular grocery stores. Why the hell people patronize them is beyond me.
I do use them for one thing though. When the weather is bad and I can not use the walking paths in town, I walk WalMart. Walk the perimeter and up and down each aisle and I have my walking done for the day.
November 10, 2011 at 7:18 am
PMM, the way of the independent grocer is going. I have two that I can access readily. I love going there because they won’t put unripened fruit and vegetables out. It simply is not tolerated. Walmart has a take it or leave it attitude which many patronize because it is convenient. I can still get a butcher to cut bones for me. It is sad.
November 10, 2011 at 11:11 am
All my produce comes from the Farmer’s Market from locals. If they don’t have it, I don’t eat it. The prices are about the same as the grocery store. Plus I get the benefit of supporting jobs in my state.
November 10, 2011 at 11:04 am
Not to mention they hate women. They refuse to sell birth control, they discriminate against women in pay and promotions, and they f#ck over small communities by running the locals out of business by undercutting them and then jacking up prices. Plus I don’t buy
toxic, slave labor madecrap from Chinawhich is 90% of what they sell, probably including their produce. Btw here is the list again of the companies that filed a friend of the court (Amicus Brief) statement upon behalf of Walmart at their discrimination against women trial: http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/wal-mart-v-dukes/Hewlett Packard, Walgreens, Costco, Pepsi, Dole, Tyson, B of A, … it’s huge.
November 10, 2011 at 2:03 pm
As I stated over at UW, this story is behind the times or maybe my local Walmart was a testing ground. We’ve had a clinic inside our Walmart for several years. Yes it is staffed by an NP.
They have a big board over the reception desk with the prices and then a pamphlet for more involved or detailed information.
Heck I’ve even been there once!! I was not impressed but I got what I needed after a lot of negotiating. It was a holiday weekend and little somebody’s oncologist on call suggested we go there for a quick urine check since it appeared she had yet another UTI. The NP did the urine dip stick test and it came back positive……but she insisted that little somebody be prescribed drug X and I knew she needed drug Y. (She was in chemo treatment at the time and drug X was contraindicated) Finally I called the oncologist back on my cell, handed the phone to the NP and he told the NP to prescribe drug Y. So what did she do??? She prescribed both, LOL!!
We never returned there! Little Somebody was prone to UTI’s the last half of her chemo treatment, but insurance wouldn’t pay for ER unless her immune counts were super low…..that’s the only way it could be considered an emergency. (The UTI’s always seemed to strike on the weekend too) The stupid thing is that with a leukemia patient a UTI could evolve to kidney issues or even failure quite rapidly…..but tell my insurance company that.
Anyway after our wonderful Walmart adventure the oncologist made sure we had a prescription on file waiting for us at our pharmacy. The oncologist also gave us a bottle of those test strips to keep at home. We did our own tests, of course dropping off a sample for culture at a local lab, so we never had the need to grace the doors of the Walmart clinic again.
November 10, 2011 at 2:55 pm
OMG Somebody, little somebody is very lucky to have you watching over. A simple thing can turn into a bad nightmare easily. I think about how easily a simple mistake or oversight will do untold damage in the end. It happens in primary care physician offices already. This is not a good environment for anyone with a serious problem. Who is watching the NP?
November 11, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Take a look at one nightmare scenario. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/11/11/ri-doc-leaves-us-patients-cant-get-medical-files/?test=latestnews
This guy got a visa to practice here. Obviously, it was not enough…he’s run back to Africa to run for office.
November 10, 2011 at 2:04 pm
The moral to my story I guess is this………if you have something run of the mill and no complicating factors you’re probably fine going to the Walmart clinic.
November 12, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Not exactly on topic:
http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2011/11/whistleblower-terminated-northwestern-human-experimentation/
“Despite being promoted to Valve Director in 2006, Dr. Nalini M. Rajamannan was terminated in 2008 after reporting the use of non-FDA approved, experimental medical devices being implanted in patients without their knowledge.
The doctor conducting these human experiments, Dr. Patrick McCarthy, was testing his own inventions, an IMR annuloplasty device and a Myxo annuloplasty device manufactured by Edwards Lifescience.
These devices had not been approved by the FDA and even now, many patients have no idea that they have these experimental devices in their bodies.”