Costco will offer its members access to physicians through a partnership with the Google-backed … [+]
The retail giant Costco will offer its members access to physicians online through a partnership with the Google-backed telehealth marketplace Sesame.
New York-based Sesame said Monday it is launching a partnership to offer “special discount pricing to Costco Members on a broad range of outpatient medical care offered at Sesame.” Telehealth appointments are $29, a Sesame spokesman said.
Costco’s effort to offer access to physicians, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, isn’t like the in-store clinics being rolled out by Walgreens and its partner VillageMD. Walmart also has dozens of physician-staffed clinics while CVS Health, which has owned MinuteClinics inside its stores for years, this year bought the doctor-staffed senior clinic company Oak Street Health for $10 billion. Amazon earlier this year paid nearly $4 billion for One Medical, which has both online and in-person clinics.
Costco will have no in-store clinics staffed by physicians. Rather, Sesame is a marketplace that connects “thousands of outpatient healthcare providers” in all 50 states with U.S. consumers. Sesame has doctor supply for both online appointments and in-person, a Sesame spokesman said.
“The Sesame marketplace is comprised of primary care doctors and nurse practitioners, more than 40 health specialties, labs and imaging centers, and is inclusive of both virtual and in-person care,” Sesame said in a statement.
Initially, Costco and Sesame are expecting the “vast majority of appointments” to be online, a company spokesman said. “Should a Costco Member book an in-person doctor appointment, they get an automatic 10% off our list price.”
“By bringing marketplace dynamics to consumer healthcare for the first time, Sesame has created an environment where providers actually compete to serve patients, regardless of the patient’s insurance status,” Sesame said in a statement. “The resulting competition lowers the price of care, drives complete price transparency, provides ready access to health providers (the vast majority of appointments on Sesame take place within two hours), and ensures a high-quality consumer experience with top-rated providers.”