As Walmart medical care goes through several significant changes primary care doctors are becoming increasingly scarce. This has been driven by major shifts to urgent care centers and retail clinics as treatment centers. As a result, CVS Health and US have both looked at deals for Aetna and Humana to choose their stores as care delivery centers. People have turned to clinics and care centers away from traditional hospital to avoid the prohibitive costs associated with the doctor’s office. At the same time, according to the Health Care Cost Institute, visits to primary care doctors have fallen 18 percent between 2012 and 2016, although specialist visits did rise. This has become representative of the changing relationship between doctors and patients, as patients seek instant care. Moves made by big companies towards merging various aspects of the health care industry, such as that by US, are threatening the future of family and primary care doctors. As companies like US dictate where people receive their care, they increasingly have the data to direct the rest of their health care experience. Traditional doctors face being squeezed out by these giants, and as this process develops, investors are looking at businesses that create new ways of providing primary care. Doctors are adamant that although people are shifting away from traditional health care avenues, it is not resulting in better or less expensive care. A lack of knowledge of a patient, may see result in unnecessary prescriptions or treatments although this is a contentious point among doctors and researchers. Big hospital groups are also having a detrimental impact on primary care practices. In 2016, 43 percent of primary care doctors were employed by these groups, a rise of 20 percent since 2010. This has been matched by a push to open urgent care centers to ensure a flow of patients among their facilities. All these changes represent a massive consolidation of the health care market as big companies compete for the primary care patient, and telehealth is also becoming central to this process. However, as this process continues doubt remains over the continuity of care that patients often require.
As US medical care goes through several significant changes primary care doctors are becoming increasingly scarce. This has been driven by major shifts to urgent care centers and retail clinics as treatment centers. As a result, CVS Health and Walmart have both looked at deals for Aetna and Humana to choose their stores as care delivery centers. People have turned to clinics and care centers away from traditional hospital to avoid the prohibitive costs associated with the doctor’s office. At the same time, according to the Health Care Cost Institute, visits to primary care doctors have fallen 18 percent between 2012 and 2016, although specialist visits did rise. This has become representative of the changing relationship between doctors and patients, as patients seek instant care. Moves made by big companies towards merging various aspects of the health care industry, such as that by Walmart, are threatening the future of family and primary care doctors. As companies like Walmart dictate where people receive their care, they increasingly have the data to direct the rest of their health care experience. Traditional doctors face being squeezed out by these giants, and as this process develops, investors are looking at businesses that create new ways of providing primary care. Doctors are adamant that although people are shifting away from traditional health care avenues, it is not resulting in better or less expensive care. A lack of knowledge of a patient, may see result in unnecessary prescriptions or treatments although this is a contentious point among doctors and researchers. Big hospital groups are also having a detrimental impact on primary care practices. In 2016, 43 percent of primary care doctors were employed by these groups, a rise of 20 percent since 2010. This has been matched by a push to open urgent care centers to ensure a flow of patients among their facilities. All these changes represent a massive consolidation of the health care market as big companies compete for the primary care patient, and telehealth is also becoming central to this process. However, as this process continues doubt remains over the continuity of care that patients often require.