How Walmart and SCAN Group Aim to Fill Health Care Gaps in Underserved Communities

Which is better — Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) or Medicare Advantage (MA)? Sachin Jain, MD, MBA, president and CEO of SCAN Group & Health Plan, doesn’t think it’s the right question.

“We all know we have a broken health care system, and we have to try in our own ways to make it better,” he says.

Cheryl Pegus, MD, MPH, executive vice president of Health & Wellness, Walmart

Jain was joined by Cheryl Pegus, MD, MPH, executive vice president of Health & Wellness at Walmart, in a session at a recent conference. The panel discussion was moderated by Matthew Holt, founder/author of The Health Care Blog.

SCAN Group and Walmart are focused on meeting the health and wellness needs of underserved populations through value-based care models — and they are growing fast. SCAN and CareOregon announced their intention “to combine as a mission-driven not-for-profit healthcare organization under the name HealthRight Group.” Together, they will serve 800,000 members of Medicare and Medicaid managed care plans.

Walmart recently announced a 10-year collaboration agreement with UnitedHealth Group, beginning in 2023 with 15 Walmart Health locations in Florida and Georgia and scaling up from there, “ultimately serving hundreds of thousands of seniors and Medicare beneficiaries in value-based arrangements through multiple Medicare Advantage plans,” according to the September 7, 2022 press release.

Pegus says about the collaboration, “We’re looking for people who’ve been doing this for a long time when we partner because we’re partnering to run fast and to win.” For her, winning is fixing a broken system. “Our goal is, how do we make this better than it is?” she says.

In a recent article, these top executives share their candid perspectives on the state of health care in the U.S. and discuss how their organizations are aiming to fill the gaps.

Read the full article now: Making Health Care Better for Underserved Communities: Viewpoints from HLTH 2022

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