Northwell Health is partnering with Walgreens over the next five years to explore ways the two entities can further expand and improve retail health services, the companies announced Thursday. The move reflects the evolution of retail health clinics as a more trusted healthcare partner to hospitals.
Northwell telehealth providers will serve customers using the Walgreens Find Care digital platform across New York state. The platform was launched in 2018 to connect customers to in-person and virtual healthcare providers.
The two companies stated a press release that the goal is to jointly increase access and lower costs of healthcare services in underserved areas.
The partnership grew from joint efforts to hold COVID-19 testing and vaccination drives at Walgreens stores located within vulnerable communities, said Dr. Debbie Salas-Lopez, Northwell Health senior vice president of community and population health.
“Our service area, while big, can only reach a certain part,” Salas-Lopez said. “Walgreens or a Rite Aid may have a store in or near a community where we don’t have a primary care office or an urgent care center.”
As part of the agreement, all 76,000 members of Northwell’s workforce can use Walgreens as an in-network pharmacy provider and can also fill their non-specialty prescriptions at the drug store giant’s pharmacy locations.
The collaboration will aim to develop new digital offerings and pharmacy services through in-person and virtual retail health sites in an effort to advance health equity throughout the state, Salas-Lopez said.
Northwell and Walgreens could also partner to bring back retail health clinics within select Walgreens stores. Walgreens exited that business in 2019 when it closed 160 in-store clinics it had staffed in favor of partnering with local health systems to operate its remaining 220 healthcare sites.
“This is really just a continuation of a broader strategy to deliver quality, affordable healthcare locally in the patient’s neighborhood so that its really easy access,” said Jeff Bruneteau, regional vice president of eastern operations for Walgreens. “Partnerships like the one with Northwell help us showcase our commitment to understanding the needs of the patient and being ready to tailor our offerings to benefit the communities that we serve.”
The deal reflects the role retail clinics have taken since first entering healthcare in the early 2000s.
While retail health clinics were previously viewed by hospitals as competitors, more traditional providers see retain as a chance to expand their own community outreach efforts.
That’s especially true in the past 18 months.
“I think people are more open-minded about how everyone can play a role in this space, including urgent care clinics, retail clinics, and telehealth,” Salas-Lopez said. “The delivery of care is different, and it’s about access, it’s about convenience and it’s about low cost, and these types of partnerships extend that philosophy.”
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