October 12th, 2012
Free Cardiac And Spine Surgery For Walmart Employees At Six Hospitals
Larry Husten, PHD
Starting next year 1.1 million U.S. Walmart employees and their dependents will be eligible for free heart, spine, and transplant surgery at six highly regarded health care organizations. Walmart employees will have no out-of-pocket costs, including travel, lodging, and food for the patient and a caregiver.
On Thursday the company announced that its “Centers of Excellence” program, which had previously provided free transplants to Walmart employees, would expand to include heart and spine surgeries. Here are the six health care organizations involved in the program:
- Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio
- Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa
- Mayo Clinic sites in Rochester, Minn., Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz., and Jacksonville, Fla.
- Mercy Hospital Springfield in Springfield, Mo.
- Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Tex.
- Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Wash.
In a tweet, noted writer and surgeon Atul Gawande said, “This will change medicine.”
Walmart said that four of the hospitals — Cleveland Clinic, Geisinger Medical Center, Scott & White Memorial Hospital, and Virginia Mason Medical Center — will provide the cardiac procedures, including coronary artery bypass grafting, heart valve replacement/repair, closures of heart defects, thoracic and aortic aneurysm repair, and other complex cardiac surgeries. Three of the hospitals — Mercy Hospital Springfield, Scott & White Memorial Hospital, and Virginia Mason Medical Center — will perform the spine procedures. Mayo Clinic will continue to provide transplants.
“We devoted extensive time developing Centers of Excellence in order to improve the quality of care our associates’ receive,” said Walmart’s senior vice president of global benefits, in a press release. “We have identified six renowned health care systems that meet the highest quality standards for heart, spine, and transplant surgery. Through these hospital systems, our associates will have no out-of-pocket expenses and a greater peace of mind knowing they are receiving exceptional care from a facility that specializes in the procedure they require. This is the first time a retailer has offered a comprehensive, nationwide program for heart, spine, and transplant surgery.”
3 Responses to “Free Cardiac And Spine Surgery For Walmart Employees At Six Hospitals”
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Wow! From famine to feast — and a means of controlling access to, quality of, and cost for expensive and often overused procedures. Dr Gawande nailed it.
this is quite unprecedented. the obvious genius is not the humanitarian aspect, but selecting real.(not bogus) centers of excellence to need and utilization appropriate. cheaper and care better when access limited rather then care on demand
A Masterstroke!
This is a real good example of partnership.
The employers offer to employees free surgical procedures in probably the best hospitals in the world. We easily imagine the employees being really grateful…
The hospitals will increase their activity (I know they do not care) but probably make a package and confirm their level of excellence taking care more carefully of postoperative complications to control as best as they can the price.
Have we an idea if this masterstroke is it limited in time or signed forever?