Walgreens and VillageMD kickstarting the ‘Go Big’ strategy of over 500 co-located primary care offices

Va-room! Back in July, Walgreens Boots Alliance and VillageMD announced a Really Big Deal that involved 500 to 700 co-located full-service Village Medical primary care offices in more than 30 markets over the next three to five years, along with a billion-dollar investment by Walgreens in VillageMD over the next three years. This week, they announced the opening of the first 40 “Village Medical at Walgreens”, in addition to the 5 pilot offices in Houston, by the end of summer 2021. The first openings will be in Phoenix starting in two weeks, with the remaining flight of offices in Houston, El Paso, and Austin, Texas, plus Orlando, Florida.

The coordination of the Village Medical office with Walgreens pharmacy and in-store services is apparent in the announcement, with much made of coordination among them in influencing patient medication adherence (right dose at the right time), health outcomes, and lowering the cost of care. Many of the clinics will be in traditionally underserved areas with high rates of medical disparities and multiple chronic conditions. In the July announcement, they pledged that over 50 percent would be located in HHS-designated Health Professional Shortage Areas and Medically Underserved Areas/Populations. Release.

For Walgreens Boots, it confirms that they aren’t wavering from their ‘go big or go home’ strategy, clearly targeted to revitalize their retail locations and pharmacy in higher potential markets. Since then, Amazon has opened up Pharmacy in addition to PillPack, CVS is integrating SDOH into pharmacy as a trial, and Walmart Health continues to waver with a limping expansion of 22 clinics in four states. Walgreens picked a very strong partner in VillageMD and Village Medical, which now have more than 2,800 physicians across nine markets, cover approximately 600,000 lives, and manage $4 billion in total medical spend in value-based contracts. They also haven’t slacked in their own efforts. Only last month, they acquired Complete Care Medicine in Phoenix, opening 17 clinics there by summer 2021, along with announcing 10 new offices in Atlanta. VillageMD is also featuring 24/7 telehealth and virtual care in its offices.