Cliff JudyThe "great Wal-Mart rebrand" just keeps branching into new areas. The big-box retailer announced Monday it'll team up with DirectHealth.com to help you figure out health insurance.
"Let's face it, folks. The new health care reform law is complex."
And therein lies the opportunity, as Wal-Mart sees it. Health insurance sign-up for Medicare and Medicaid was already … well, just look.
In announcing "Healthcare Begins Here," Wal-Mart's senior VP for health and wellness wrote customers have called picking health care options far too confusing, and licensed agents will be in 2,700 stores to help walk you through the enrollment process as early as Friday.
"Healthcare Begins Here addresses that complexity by bringing clarity and increased choice to the insurance enrollment process."
In the aftermath of the Affordable Care Act, the competition to be known as the authority on health care has led other stores like Walgreens and CVS to try their hands at being more than just pharmacies.
With a load of overhead, huge demands on its suppliers and slumping sales since the economic recession, Wal-Mart's made massive efforts to pivot and figure out any way to bring middle- and lower-income customers back to its stores.
Much of that includes not just offering products, but services — everything from testing drive-thru grocery shopping, revamping its home page to presumably compete with all-e-commerce companies like Amazon, offering no-overdraft checking accounts and trying out primary care health clinics in a dozen stores.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
