Courtesy WalmartWalmart is incorporating behavioral healthcare into its new virtual diabetes care program. Delivered via the retail giant’s telehealth subsidiary MeMD, the diabetes program is pitched as a tool for employers and payers to help members manage their diabetes.
Program participants meet with a medical provider, who can assess a patient’s medical and nutritional history, as well as check for risks of depression. The medical provider can then schedule a follow-up visit with a licensed behavioral health provider to meet the patient’s needs.
Access to care continues to be a barrier for patients. The CDC projects that only 25% to 50% of individuals with diabetes who have depression get diagnosed and treated.
“Failure to meet recommended treatment goals results in an extra five and a half days of missed work per person, according to the NIH, along with an increased risk of hospitalization,” Dr. John Wigneswaran, Walmart’s CMO, said in a statement. “This is compounded by the fact that patients with diabetes are two to three times more likely to have depression than those without diabetes, and addressing mental health is critical to caring for the whole patient.”
Walmart has been building out its behavioral health services over the last five years. In 2018 the retail giant tapped Boston-based behavioral health provider Beacon Care Services to provide mental health services at its first Walmart Healthcare Center. Since then the partnership has expanded to include more centers.
In 2020 the company announced that patients could speak to a counselor at Walmart Health Centers for $1 a minute. Walmart differentiates its healthcare centers from traditional providers, through its price transparency model, which tells the patient the cost of services prior to receiving treatment.
Walmart also appears to be incorporating telehealth into its care delivery models. The company purchased virtual care provider MeMD in 2021. MeMD is able to provide urgent care, men and women’s health care, as well as talk therapy, teen therapy and psychiatry.
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