Humana & Walmart Team Up In San Antonio

humanaHumana is working with retail giant Walmart to provide expanded access to health care in San Antonio. The Louisville, Ky.-based company has developed three new Humana Health & Well-being Centers that will be open to its members and to the general public. Two of those centers will officially open later this month in Alamo City Walmart stores located at S.E. Military Drive and 6703 Leslie Road.

A third Humana Health & Well-being Center is located in Kentucky.

The centers will offer an array of health care resources and services, including telemedicine suites featuring digital audio and video interaction with physicians who can evaluate, diagnose and treat various medical conditions.

The Humana Health & Well-being Centers will be staffed with bilingual nurses provided by Concentra. Each facility will also have an activities coordinator.

“The telemedicine component of MyDocDirect at the Humana Health & Well-being Centers is a part of Humana’s integrated health strategy and a new way to improve patient access to care,” says Humana spokesman Ross McLerran. “After shopping at Walmart for a spark plug or a can of tomatoes or the latest DVD movie, San Antonio residents can also stop in at the Humana Health & Well-being Center to have a physician diagnose and treat an allergy, lower back pain, a sore throat or many other minor illnesses.”

Humana previously acquired Concentra. The latter company now serves as a clinical delivery arm for the insurer. Concentra is providing the telemedicine physicians and on-site nursing personnel for the Humana Health & Well-being Centers. Those physicians will be based at Concentra urgent care facilities in San Antonio.

“We are working in concert with the Humana guidance folks and the Walmart hosts,” says Dr. Bill Lewis, senior vice president of medical operations for Concentra, about the Health & Well-being Centers.

Stakeholders did their homework before deciding to place two of the initial centers in San Antonio.

“There was a market selection process, in terms of where Humana had significant membership, Concentra had clinics to support the clinical personnel and Walmart had a desire to try out the telemedicine and guidance center concept,” Lewis explains. “We looked across multiple states and San Antonio was chosen.”