At least eight of Walmart's healthcare leaders behind the retail giant's health clinic push have left the company since the start of 2020, with another on his way out in May, according to an April 19 Business Insider report.
Walmart first launched its health clinics in September 2019 and currently has 20 across four states. The clinics were going to provide transparent and affordable pricing, with a physician visit costing only $40.
However, the expansion has slowed as many of Walmart's healthcare leaders behind the clinics have left the company in the less than two years since the first one opened in 2019.
Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran was behind much of the health clinic's strategy and left the company two months after the first clinic opened in November 2019 to work as the CEO of Air New Zealand Group.
After his departure, nine key leaders in Walmart's healthcare sector left the company.
Nine of Walmart's healthcare leaders departing the company:
- Sean Slovenski, a former Humana executive, was responsible for Walmart's healthcare strategy and putting together a team. He quit the company in August to become the CEO of lab-testing startup BioIQ.
- Walmart's chief wellness officer, Phil Suiter, who helped to lead clinical operations, departed the company in March 2020.
- Thomas Van Gilder, MD, Walmart's chief medical officer who led the clinical-model design and wrote policies guiding the clinics, is leaving the company May 15 to spend time with his family and pursue new opportunities, according to an internal memo.
- Anand Mehta, MD, the medical director for Walmart Health's flagship location in Georgia, left to start his own practice in August 2020.
"Walmart Health was not the culture or the healthcare model I envisioned when I joined, so we parted ways," he told Insider. - Jay Picklesimer, senior director of Walmart's specialty retail Neighborhood Market pharmacy and specialty retail operations, left in September 2020 and followed Mr. Slovenski to BioIQ. He oversaw a team responsible for telehealth and insurance processing for Walmart's healthcare businesses and handled operations across the company's pharmacy and vision businesses.
- Mony Iyer, who oversaw thousands of Walmart's dental and vision clinics, including some that were part of the healthcare clinics, departed and became the COO at Banfield Pet Hospital.
- Daryl Risinger, Walmart's chief growth officer for its health and wellness business, left in late 2020.
- Evan Schnur, the director of healthcare transformation and strategy, left in March and is now at a Medicare brokerage startup called Healthpilot.
- Walmart's head of dentistry, a big component of the health clinics, Ro Parikh, left in 2021.