Walgreens Offers Uninsured Free Clinic Care
Drugstore retailer Walgreens will provide free medical tests and routine treatments at its Take Care in-store walk-in clinics to customers who lose their jobs and health insurance through the end of 2009.
According to the Associated Press, customers who provide proof they have become both unemployed and uninsured after March 31, 2009 will become eligible for free treatment of conditions including respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions. Medical lab operator Quest Diagnostics is partnering in the program to provide free tests for strep throat and urinary tract infections to qualifying customers. Checkups and vaccinations will not be included in free services.
Free services will be available Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at all 701 Take Care clinics located in Walgreens stores. Uninsured spouses and children of qualifying customers will also receive free treatments. Customers who find a new job or obtain health insurance will lose eligibility.
Walgreens would not release estimates of potential patient demand or cost for the program. Research of placement of in-store clinics by major national retailers CVS, Walgreens and Wal-Mart shows that all three have concentrated in-store clinic placement in the five states with the highest rates of uninsured residents under 65: Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Approximately 11% of Walgreens’ Take Care clinics are located in Florida, Nevada and Texas stores.
Walgreens launched a major ad campaign promoting Take Care clinics last fall. Supermarket chain H-E-B added five new services to its 21 Redi-Care clinics located inside stores in the Houston and Austin, TX markets earlier this month. CVS plans to put about 90 of its 460-plus MinuteCare walk-in clinics on a seasonal schedule until the fall. Wal-Mart, which currently operates about 30 in-store walk-in clinics, plans to expand that number to 400 by 2010.
Walgreens bought the Take Care clinics in May 2007. Take Care says it has seen about 1.2 million patients since its launch in November 2005 and estimates that up to 30% of them were uninsured. Take Care also estimates 30% of its patients are new customers to Walgreens.