Giant companies like Amazon, CVS Health, Walgreens and Walmart are all looking to primary care and physicians amid an increasingly consolidating industry.
Amazon recently announced its plan to acquire primary care provider company One Medical, which could further alter the dynamics of physician recruiting and acquisitions, Forbes reported.
Independent physicians should be prepared for "an entirely new dynamic" when it comes to prospective buyers, the report said. The new market will include unconventional buyers, such as larger retail companies, and there will be a bigger push toward consolidation as more buyers look to buy physician practices.
With the Amazon deal, One Medical will have the financial backing to access the primary care market and compete with the hospitals and health systems that are buying up physician practices, the report said.
CVS Health also plans to enter the primary care market by the end of this year. The company is known for its in-store MinuteClinics for vaccinations and urgent care but lacks offices for annual checkups with clinicians. It wants to change that by forming partnerships with or acquiring a stake in a primary care company to offer more primary care services.
Additionally, both Walgreens and Walmart have opened hundreds of primary care clinics in the last two years.
Walgreens is looking to shift the entire industry with its new primary care strategy by incorporating coordinated patient care, according to CEO Roz Brewer. In 2022, Ms. Brewer said Walgreens looks to expand VillageMD, the company's primary care clinics, from 80 clinics across 10 markets to 200 clinics by the end of the year.
As more big players take a stake in the primary care game, it could raise costs for all medical groups, according to the Forbes article.