The news: Walmart is partnering with General Medicine, an online “healthcare store” where consumers can search for, compare, and purchase medical care services, medications, and labs. The deal brings General Medicine’s healthcare marketplace to Walmart’s new Better Care Services platform, which already connects shoppers to telehealth and discounted health and wellness products.

Zooming out: General Medicine lists primary and specialty care providers that consumers can evaluate based on cost, location, availability, and personal preference, then book using insurance or paying cash.

• General Medicine uses large language models (LLMs) to analyze patients’ coverage and benefits to estimate their costs for medical services across facilities.
• General Medicine will power the expanded marketplace, and the company will offer care through its own medical group as one of the available providers, per Fierce Healthcare. Walmart determines which other providers participate on the platform.

Why this matters: The tie-up lets Walmart compete for more of consumers' health and wellness spending without the cost of running clinics.

Walmart shut down its 51 in-store health clinics and virtual care services in 2024, citing a difficult reimbursement environment and high operating costs. The marketplace lets it skip the medical staff and facilities while still pointing patients toward its pharmacy, grocery, and everyday shopping business.

For General Medicine, the partnership puts the year-old healthcare marketplace in front of Walmart’s roughly 150 million weekly US shoppers. That reach could help it establish itself in a crowded market where consumers already have many ways to find and book care online.

Implications for consumer health brands and marketers: Walmart's tie-up with General Medicine could intensify competition among direct-to-consumer healthcare companies by giving consumers another way to discover and access care through a familiar retail brand. General Medicine’s $120 million funding round earlier this month, backed by Eli Lilly and Mercy Health, likely signals further service expansion and partnerships with healthcare players.

Many online consumer health companies built their businesses around cash-pay access to treatments for specific conditions such as weight loss, hair loss, and erectile dysfunction. General Medicine takes a broader approach, operating as an all-in-one healthcare marketplace where consumers can compare and book a wide range of medical services and account for their insurance coverage when evaluating costs. That creates a more personalized, potentially cost-effective shopping experience, though without the established patient relationships and track record of ongoing treatment support that competitors offer.

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