It Takes a Village but Hardly a Doctor
If you haven’t heard:
Walgreens boosts stake in primary-care company VillageMD with a $5.2 billion investment
Yup, $5.2 billion.
Here are the key points to this CNBC article:
- Walgreens Boots Alliance is becoming the majority owner of VillageMD, as it opens hundreds of doctor offices with the primary-care company.
- It plans to have at least 600 primary-care clinics in more than 30 U.S. markets by 2025 and 1,000 by 2027.
- The deal is part of an effort to turn neighborhood drugstores into health-care destinations with doctors who provide care, write prescriptions and draw traffic to the retail locations.
We cannot find anything on their website detailing the ratio of physicians to midlevels. We do know they reported in March how much they are vying for the latter in this article: Healthcare companies vie for advanced practice practitioners.
We doubt whether the true ratio will be disclosed but who here believes this is going to be one big NP/PA run platform with a smidgeon of real doctors? Hands in the air, please. Oh, wait, here is a survey:
Ugh, no thanks
More ammunition for a student to stay away from primary. I don’t think those that are left do classical hospital, office and take call practice. Doug might know the current percentages. Kurt
A society that chooses to act like superstitious and subservient infants deserves what it gets.
We “want” healthcare, but we want the capacity to “tell on” anyone who displeases us in our service transactions. Americans want a complaints department when they inevitably become frustrated in demanding their infantile needs. They insist that doctors must have managers. In that case, why bother with doctors? Anyone can run an app and send someone to an ER. Anyone can listen to a fool bellyache because they want what they want, and NOW.
The Trumpists have merely come to the conclusion that they have found the Great White Father who will serve their every childish need by virtue of his immense power..
Looks like a 1:1 physician to mid level typical in most insurance based practices. See job listing link https://www.villagemd.com/open-positions?gh_jid=5457313002
I see that now. Thanks. But it’s not like that is locked in. Or that recruiting efforts are slightly less than honest. I worked at an urgent care for a chain for a year and saw that ratio start like this and then turn upside down. Let’s see in a couple of years.
Informative article. I’m wondering if someone on here can give a few more details regarding the lack of physicians available in different geographic locations. Here in Pennsylvania there has been a steady decline in doctors due to malpractice issues. Before I retired I read where paramedics in some cities across the US were being sent out in a regular van to conduct limited primary care in an attempt to reduce 911 calls for non-emergency type issues.
Here in central Pennsylvania, it is extremely difficult to get a doctor’s appointment. Wait time can be as long as 3 months. When I lived in California decades ago, this was the same issue as Kaiser Permanente ran most of health Care at the time. You never saw the same doctor twice and the quality of healthcare was very low. It now seems to have reached the East Coast. Since we have such a lack of doctors available, I don’t have a problem with NFP/ PAs being utilized even though we know it’s all about the money for Walgreens and any other company that goes this direction.
Does this seem to be the case across the United States? I’m sure that money is also an issue. Back in my paramedic days, I looked at working here in PA and found that they paid less than $12 an hour. At the time I was working at Johns Hopkins in Maryland and made twice that.
I would prefer to see an MD for my medical treatment, but waiting 3 months doesn’t work. If I can at least see an NFP or a PA today or tomorrow, I can settle for that. Not my preference. But may be necessary.
What are the rest of you seeing in this regard ?