Why Disruptors Are Now Setting Their Sights on the Senior Care Market

The retail primary care market may be struggling, but some see an opportunity to meet the healthcare needs of the fastest growing population in the nation.

Disruptors looking for the secret sauce for success in the primary care market are setting their sights on a new strategy: Senior care.

CVS Health recently announced plans to open 25 new Oak Street Health Centers this year alongside CVS pharmacies and another 11 stores next year, with the new stores focusing on senior care.

“By coupling these two powerful CVS Health assets, it advances the company’s strategy to deliver [a] personalized healthcare experience in a more integrated way, especially for senior patients with complex or chronic health conditions,” Mike Pykosz, Oak Street’s co-founder and EVP and president of healthcare delivery for CVS Health, recently told Forbes.

Just last month, Humana announced that it would open 23 new senior primary care centers, operating under the CenterWell Senior Primary Care and Conviva Care Centers brands, in select Walmart Supercenters.

“These nearly two dozen primary care centers are specifically designed for seniors, and each location’s design, including dedicated entrances and easy parking, offers patients the access that they have come to expect at our clinics across the nation,” CenterWell President Sanjay Shetty, MD, said in a press release. “We are eager to expand on our mission to help patients lead happier, healthier lives.”

The two announcements may point to a trend: Developing retail healthcare clinics for the fastest growing segment of the nation’s population.

In a recent HealthLeaders podcast Chris Palmieri, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Care Alliance, said the primary care space is still considered the entry point for consumer access to care.

“Long gone are the days of people walking into and sitting in their physician’s office,” he pointed out. That’s especially true of seniors who might have difficulties getting to their doctor’s office.

Palmieri says the aging population—by 2030, he notes, the nation will have more seniors than people under age 18—represents a fertile market for healthcare, not only in helping seniors stay in their homes and out of long-term care facilities but in helping them access care.

“Our system today is not built for this demographic shift,” he said. “As an industry we need to find ways to effectively and efficiently serve this population. The winners are going to be those that can adapt, that truly be effective and friendly and meet those individuals’ changing needs.”

Palmieri says the healthcare industry is coming to grips with the growing popularity of consumer-driven healthcare, and the idea that consumers—in this case seniors—are starting to dictate how, when and where they want their care.

The focus going forward will be on how these senior care clinics are developed, and how they’d be different from primary care clinics open to people of any age.