VillageMD, which is majority owned by Walgreens, wants to expand to rural America and offer patients access to care seven days a week, Politico reported April 3.
Tim Barry, co-founder and CEO of VillageMD, said his vision for the company is to offer consumers "in-person healthcare touches, fewer ER visits and lower costs."
The company, which recently acquired Summit Health-CityMD on Jan. 3, said it plans on moving CityMD into areas where VillageMD already has locations such as Houston, Phoenix and Atlanta.
In addition, Mr. Barry said after this, VillageMD will move CityMD into rural areas.
The aim, according to Mr. Barry, is to give patients access to more affordable healthcare as he says the current U.S. healthcare system is too "hospital-centric."
"We're bankrupting more and more people every year because of medical debt," Mr. Barry told Politico. "People aren't getting bankrupt in the healthcare system because they had a $60 PCP visit. They get bankrupted because they had a $30,000 hospital bill that they didn't expect."