The largest physical retailer in the U.S. Walmart is moving further into healthcare. On Tuesday, the company announced that it has created a team of licensed insurance agents in all 50 States to help Americans choose the right Medicare among nine insurance companies.
Walmart (WMT) on Tuesday announced the launch of the licensed insurance broker company Walmart Insurance Services, LLC, which works directly with leading insurance companies in the USA and will help people in selecting and obtaining the appropriate insurance Medicare (government health insurance).
Walmart’s shares, an increase of 18.3% since the beginning of the year increased insignificantly after the announcement.
In a press release, the General Manager of Walmart Insurance Services, David Sullivan, said that the purpose of the company and online service walmartinsurance.com. was the desire of Walmart to help the Americans in choosing the Medicare plan that “best meets their needs, budget and lifestyle” and to simplify this process.
“Help the customers in choosing the right Medicare health plan to meet their needs consistent with the mission of Walmart is to help people save money and live better,” said Sullivan.
Walmart Insurance Services is licensed in all 50 States and will begin selling insurance Medicare from October 15 with a choice among the following insurance companies: Humana (HUM), UnitedHealthcare (UNH), Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (ANTM), Amerigroup, Simply Health, Wellcare (Centene), Clover Health and Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Walmart said that in the future can be added and other insurance companies.
Analyst Cowen&Co Oliver Chen praised this step Walmart, pointing to the earlier of the first successes of the company in the areas of health, great database of physical locations for the construction of clinics in the neighborhood supermarkets and the launch of membership program Walmart +. Read more about Walmart + Marketinfo read on.pro “subscription Service Walmart + starts on September 15 and is cheaper than Amazon Prime subscription”.
Insurance services complement the sequence of “actions taken by Walmart leadership to create a unified system for the provision of medical services,” wrote the analyst.
Walmart has been cooperating with the insurance company Humana, thousands of pharmacies in the stores and several clinics. In July Marketinfo.pro wrote that having four Walmart Health clinic, the company intends to open 6 clinics in the Atlanta area by the end of 2020.
Neighborhood clinics and health services with a huge network of Walmart in more than 5,300 supermarkets throughout the U.S., including stores subsidiary, Sam’s Club, it will be very convenient for users.
Chen believes that after this announcement the number of clinics Walmart should quickly increase. According to him, implementation of health services can attract more loyal, regular customers and benefit long-term development plans of the company.
“We recognize that to scale insurance services to Walmart and other various initiatives in the field of health will take time, but after scaling we expect that the leadership will try to integrate some of them into its fledgling membership program at Walmart +,” wrote the analyst. “We believe that these medical services will provide Walmart among competitors”.
Analyst Cowen&Co confirms the rating of Walmart stock “outperform” and target price of $155, which speaks of the potential 10% increase from the closing price on Tuesday.
