Walmart announces revolutionary corporate benefit changes

The nation’s largest employer announced a list of five new priorities on Oct. 3 intended to make healthcare easier to navigate for its employees in 2020.

To start, in three areas of the country – Orlando-Tampa, Dallas-Ft. Worth and northwestern Arkansas – the company will curate a list of “high quality physicians” in eight specialties: primary care, cardiology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, orthopedics and pulmonology.

At the same time, healthcare data analytics company Embold Health will monitor quality data from employee visits to doctors on the curated list to provide quarterly updates to Walmart corporate HQ.

“Walmart said the goal is to both give workers the information needed to make healthcare decisions based on quality and to offer feedback to regional physicians who may want to work their way on to the featured lists,” according to an article in FierceHealthcare.

In addition to the list of featured healthcare providers, the four other additions for 2020 benefits are:

expanded telehealth a personal healthcare assistant a national quality provider resource, and nationwide access to fitness clubs. In the telehealth area, employees already had telemedicine in nearly every plan, but Walmart is adding a “personal online doctor” for employees in plans in Colorado, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

This pilot program allows workers to manage chronic conditions, and get referrals and nutritional counseling. The company expects these additions to cut down on employees’ current wait times to within one hour for a virtual care visit and within one week for a behavioral health visit.

Could other corporations follow Walmart’s lead in improving healthcare options?

“I think some employers are somewhat hesitant to take the lead on a change in healthcare,” Steve Wojcik, vice president for public policy at the National Business Group on Health, told FierceHealth. “If they see other employers – especially big-name employers – doing it, they might be willing to step forward and do something similar.