Walmart expands better care services with general medicine marketplace

Key takeaways

• Better Care Services now lets shoppers browse over 900 health products and services, from virtual urgent care to lab tests, with price estimates that include insurance and cash options.
• General Medicine’s “healthcare store” platform powers the expanded marketplace, handling provider data, coverage details and customer accounts separate from Walmart’s retail operations.
• Walmart will surface the service on its website, app and the Sparky AI assistant, using its 150 million weekly shoppers and pharmacy network to drive full care transactions.

Marketplace Expansion

Walmart is converting its Better Care Services from a simple provider directory into a full-fledged health marketplace by partnering with General Medicine, the startup behind a nationwide “healthcare store” launched in May 2025. The updated platform, which launched today, lets consumers compare more than 900 health products and services—virtual urgent care, in-person visits via Solv, lab tests, mental-health programs, chronic-condition management and more—while showing estimated out-of-pocket costs based on individual insurance data and cash prices.

Technology Partnership

Leslie Fletcher, vice president of growth and partnerships at Walmart, told Fierce Healthcare that the goal is to make the care process “effortless from end to end.” By integrating provider options, price transparency and booking tools into a single digital experience, Walmart aims to move customers from symptom to care and, ultimately, to fulfillment through its retail channels. The marketplace will be accessible through Walmart.com, the Walmart mobile app and Sparky, the retailer’s conversational AI shopping assistant.

General Medicine supplies the underlying technology that aggregates provider inventories, coverage information and pricing, while also managing Better Care Services customer accounts separately from Walmart’s core retail business. The company, founded by the team that built PillPack and Amazon Pharmacy, raised $120 million in Series B funding earlier this month, bringing its total capital to $152 million. This financing is earmarked for expanding the “healthcare store” catalog and adding new categories of care.

Operational Impact

For Walmart, the partnership expands its health-and-wellness ecosystem, which already includes pharmacy, grocery and over-the-counter products. The retailer plans to use its 4,600 pharmacy locations to supplement the digital experience, allowing customers who need a medication refill to connect instantly with a clinician via Better Care Services and complete the prescription at the store. The integration of digital and brick-and-mortar assets is intended to boost utilization and capture a larger share of consumer health spending.

The marketplace already hosts services from General Medicine and more than ten third-party providers, with additional partners slated for future addition. By surfacing cost estimates, location, availability and personal preferences, the platform aims to reduce friction in the buying process and increase conversion from browsing to booked appointments or purchased lab tests.

Recommendations for Health-System Leaders

1. Map the Walmart Better Care Services catalog to existing referral networks, identifying gaps where Walmart’s offerings could complement or compete with current services. The trade-off is potential patient leakage versus access to a broader consumer base.
2. Integrate Walmart’s API for price transparency and booking into your own scheduling or EHR systems to capture patients who originate from the marketplace. This requires development effort and data-privacy coordination but can drive inbound volume.
3. Evaluate partnership or co-branding opportunities with Walmart to place your clinicians or labs within the marketplace, weighing the upside of brand exposure against revenue-share arrangements and operational complexity.

By aligning internal workflows with Walmart’s expanded digital health storefront, organizations can tap into a massive consumer audience while maintaining control over clinical quality and data governance.