Walmart exits live and virtual care business, five years after push into care delivery

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Wal­mart is shut­ting down its health­care busi­ness.

The re­tail gi­ant said Tues­day that it will close its 51 pri­ma­ry care clin­ics across five states and stop of­fer­ing on­line care af­ter de­ter­min­ing the bets weren’t “sus­tain­able.”

“This is a dif­fi­cult de­ci­sion, and like oth­ers, the chal­leng­ing re­im­burse­ment en­vi­ron­ment and es­ca­lat­ing op­er­at­ing costs cre­ate a lack of prof­itabil­i­ty that make the care busi­ness un­sus­tain­able for us at this time,” the com­pa­ny said in the an­nounce­ment.

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