Walmart leases health care clinics in Fort Smith, Northwest Arkansas to Mercy

Mercy said Thursday (July 25) it will move into three former Walmart Health Centers in supercenters in Fort Smith, Rogers and Springdale. Mercy said the clinics will offer primary care through appointments and walk-ins during regular hours, but will not provide urgent care.

St. Louis-based Mercy said the primary care clinics will reopen by late summer at the following locations: 4780 Elm Springs Road, Springdale; 2110 W. Walnut, Suite 100, Rogers; and 2100 N. 62nd St., Suite A, Fort Smith.

“Working with Walmart to lease these exceptionally well-located clinic spaces aligns with Mercy’s consumer experience and growth strategy in Arkansas,” said Ryan Gehrig, president of Mercy Arkansas Communities. “Mercy is excited about the opportunity to expand our locations in Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas, meeting the people of Arkansas where they are to provide exceptional care. These new Arkansas Mercy Primary Care locations will provide great benefits to our communities, most importantly for patients who shop and use Walmart stores.”

Walmart closed the health centers on June 28 and will lease the space to Mercy who will run the clinics independently. Mercy plans to offer employment opportunities to local providers at these three locations.

HUMANA DEAL
Walmart also on Thursday announced the sale of 23 of its vacant health clinics to Humana that will operate under the CenterWell and Conviva brands and focus on senior primary care. CenterWell will operate clinics in Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and Kansas City. Conviva will operate three senior clinics in Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville, Fla. Terms of Humana deal were not disclosed.

The healthcare clinics recently vacated by Walmart Health will soon provide seniors in these communities with greater access to primary care services designed specifically for older adults. Humana said CenterWell expects the centers to be equipped, staffed and opened no later than the first half of 2025.

Brian Setzer, exec vice president of Walmart Health & Wellness, said leasing the clinic spaces to a well-known healthcare delivery organization is a win for Walmart customers as the clinics are located next to its stores.

Walmart said in April it would close its 51 healthcare clinics citing a lack of profitability over the past five years. The retailer launched its Walmart Health Clinic experiment in 2019 and expanded to 51 clinics in five states. The Humana announcement also comes on the heels of Walmart selling its telehealth service MeMD to Fabric for an undisclosed sum.

Humana’s CenterWell and Conviva clinics deliver care to about 318,000 seniors in nearly 300 centers across 15 states, that do not include Arkansas.

Walmart and Humana have worked together for years on insurance services and were rumored to be discussing a merger as late as 2023, though neither party substantiated that conjecture. Walmart said following the closure of its healthcare clinics that it worked with partners to find a way to profitability with the clinics, but low reimbursement rates from insurers and limited patient counts created a financially unfeasible business model.