Will Walmart Buy Humana?

95% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart. That’s a lot of potential access.

If Walmart buys Humana, it would be the biggest deal the retailer ever made, and it would continue a new trend that combines retail and healthcare.

CVS announced its plan to buy Aetna for almost $70 billion. Cigna plans to buy Express Scripts for over $50 billion. Express is the biggest US prescription benefits management firm.

Amazon announced a partnership between J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway to get involved in managing employee health benefit plans. 

Retailers are some of the largest employers, so it’s clearly in their interest to improve healthcare efficiency. The traditional retailers could also benefit from much-needed in-store traffic, and they’ve got pharmacies right there. 

The pharmaceutical costs are a lot bigger than most people think. It’s increasingly the ‘first line of defense’ in healthcare, so it has increased as a percentage of annual healthcare spending. 

Can retailers deliver better medical care? Can they bring better access? It’s all so heavily regulated; it could create a lot of integration challenges, but big companies need big ideas to move the needle.

Dan is the President and CEO of CaseStack, Advisory Director to SupplyPike, and the author of Collaborate: The Art of We. You can check out Dan's Instagram.