WalMart’s SEO Lee Scott has developed his own solution to healthcare reform with the arrival of RediClinic inside Walmart Store. Now you can shop and have your bronchitis treated all in one trip 7 days a week. The service is designed to reach the uninsured as their services are low cost. For example, a visit for an active condition (as opposed to well-check or routine physical) is $59. They will often have coupons on their for $10 off. Labwork is also inexpensive.
Unfortunately, they do not provide mental health services and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as mental health care is often seen as a non-standard part of health care. Another reason for this is the clinic is staffed by nurse practitioners with doctors available for backup. Nurse practitioners trained in general medicine usually have little exposure to psychiatry. But I would have thought they would have some services available for uncomplicated mood disorders such as depression and anxiety since these disorders are often being treated by primary care physicians.
Perhaps they may expand their services to include mental health checks. But for now, they have begun to offer some benefit in the mental health arena by including a number of psychiatric medications in their $4 prescription drug plan. For those who don’t know about this, you can take your prescription for certain medications to Walmart and get a one month’s supply for $4. Target has a similar plan. Check out or for a complete list, however just a few of the andtidepressants included are generic Prozac, Paxil, Trazadone, Celexa and Elavil.
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