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FORTUNE.COM // MAY.1.19
Health care costs in
the U.S. have reached
astronomical levels—
spending hit $3.7 tril-
lion in 2018—and they
continue to climb,
weighing on patients
and the employers who
help foot the bill. As
America’s largest em-
ployer, Walmart is all
too familiar with these
trend lines—which
have led McMillon and
Woods to innovate to
do health care better.
For the company’s
1.1 million U.S. employ-
ees and their families,
Woods launched the
Centers of Excellence
(COE) program in 2013,
enabling workers to
travel to top hospitals
Walmart contracts with
for select procedures.
The company foots the
bill and has found it’s
worth it. More than half
the employees referred
by their local doctor to
get spine surgery, for
example, have learned
from a COE that they
don’t need it. For those
who do, an operation
at a COE decreases the
chance of readmission
by 95%. Walmart has
found that employees
treated at a COE recover
faster, too, returning
to work three weeks
earlier.
Walmart has now ex-
panded the COE model
to almost a dozen types
of care. It’s a blueprint
that others have start-
ed to emulate and one
that might shake up the
nation’s dysfunctional
health care system.
doug mcmillOn and
lisa woods
CEO; Senior Director,
Strategy & Design for
U.S. Benefits, Walmart