On Monday, Walmart and Quest Diagnostics announced a partnership with a goal expanding both companies’ access to healthcare consumers. In the short term, the plan is to launch up to 15 co-branded lab testing sites within Walmart locations in Texas and Florida. With success, the number of sites will increase and could encompass additional healthcare services.
The additional services would likely be part and parcel to those offered within the increasing number of clinics found within or adjacent to pharmacy departments in drugstores, supermarkets and other discount stores.
In fact, both Walmart and Quest have other partners in this space. Walmart currently operates approximately 20 healthcare clinics in partnership with QuadMed in Georgia, South Carolina and Texas, while Quest Diagnostics has teamed up with Safeway, Inc. Quest and Safeway recently passed the 100-store mark (check out the graphic below) and plan to have 200 in-store Quest Diagnostics testing facilities open by the end of 2017.