In ‘Early Innings’ of Major Retail Collabs, UnitedHealth-Walmart Make Medicare Play

  • Sep 15, 2022

    With a focus on Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, UnitedHealth Group and Walmart Inc. have struck a 10-year “wide-ranging collaboration” with value-based care elements that could ultimately extend into Medicaid and commercial plans. In addition to launching a co-branded MA plan, the partnership will connect Walmart Health clinicians with Optum’s analytics and decision support tools for value-based care delivery, and it represents the latest example of a major retailer seeking out a partner to grow its health care business. 

    Walmart already has a Medicare Part D partnership with Humana Inc. and in October 2020 launched a co-branded MA offering with Clover Health. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant at the time also launched an insurance brokerage called Walmart Insurance Services. According to walmartinsurance.com, it sells plans from Anthem (Elevance Health), Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana, UnitedHealthcare and Centene Corp.’s WellCare. The site does not, however, list Clover Health, and a spokesperson for Walmart confirms that the collaboration ended in 2021. 

    Read more
    © 2024 MMIT
  • Lauren Flynn Kelly

    Lauren has been covering health business issues since the early 2000s and specializes in in-depth reporting on Medicare Advantage, managed Medicaid and Medicare Part D. She also possesses a deep understanding of the complex world of pharmacy benefit management, having written AIS Health’s Radar on Drug Benefits from 2004 to 2005 and again from 2011 to 2016. In addition to her role as managing editor of Radar on Medicare Advantage, she oversees AIS Health’s publications and manages the health editorial staff. She graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in English.

The Latest
Meet Our Reporters

Meet Our Reporters

×