The success of the CVS-Aetna merger that will turn retail stores into "healthcare hubs" will hinge on getting more older and sicker patients to use them, according to an article on the Fast Company website.
CVS says the hubs could help reduce healthcare costs by delivering medical services in a convenient place and reducing patients’ needs for more expensive hospital visits.
But so far, experts say patients who tend to use in-store clinics are mostly younger and healthier people.
To succeed, the retail clinics must be reinvented as centers for people managing long-term diseases.