The Retail Healthcare Arms Race

Building a Health Ecosystem with the Consumer in Mind

Dan Stanek

Kate Fisher

With over 23,000 locations between them, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and now Amazon, have the opportunity to leverage their extensive reach, existing foot-traffic, and brand recognition to provide access that traditional healthcare providers can only dream about.

The strategies of these players go well beyond physical locations. Unsatisfied with a primarily clinic centered model, large drug chains and mass retailers are working to become significant forces in the provision of non-acute healthcare and wellness, and ushering in a new era of convenient and accessible care to a huge portion of the US.

The acquisitions and market movements of these companies suggest an arms race to buy or build an entire network of access for a wide variety of non-acute needs. This "holy grail" of access places the consumer and their needs at the center of a plethora of everyday health services and touchpoint options, while providing easy, tech-enabled tools to remove friction points in the process.

The consumer-driven retail healthcare ecosystem of the future is in development and promises to be an exciting race for consumer trust, ease, and utilization, with the US healthcare system sure to be very different as a result.

Download the full PDF for a closer look at the key players in the retail health movement and to analyze the major moves each is making toward a holistic access network for its customers.