We were honored to share the main stage with Walmart at the Business Group on Health 2024 Annual Conference alongside Embold Health and AiRCare health for a panel about driving health care through innovation. Walmart’s Vice President, Physical and Emotional Wellbeing, Lisa Woods, and Dr. Fahimeh Sasan, Kindbody’s Founding Physician and Chief Innovation Officer, shared three learnings that have come from Kindbody’s partnership with Walmart as its Center of Excellence for fertility and family-building care.
Access is paramount. Where you live determines the quality of your healthcare, which is why when delivering an equitable healthcare benefit access is paramount. Lisa Woods discussed the impact of Walmart’s partnership with Kindbody which brought a state-of-the art fertility clinic and lab to Northwest Arkansas. Lisa noted that associates previously drove up to five hours for their care. Additionally, Kindbody’s telemedicine program provided by board-certified physicians, delivers care to associates in every corner of the country. The combination of virtual and in-person support has helped Walmart identify and eliminate health inequities among its workforce.
Never stop innovating. Companies like Walmart are increasingly partnering with benefits solutions that serve their workforce with reproductive healthcare across all life stages. Arkansas has the largest maternity mortality rate in the U.S. with 50% of its counties having no access to maternity care. Which is why, two years into its partnership, Walmart partnered with Kindbody to grow its benefits program to include doula support. When it comes to supporting your employees, it’s important to consistently create, evaluate, and grow your benefits program, and work with a vendor partner that has the ability to innovate with you.
Healthcare should always be human. Dr. Fahimeh Sasan emphasized the importance of delivering quality healthcare that is human, noting that one-on-one engagement with a physician who listens and responds is becoming a novelty in the healthcare system. When choosing a healthcare benefits provider, whether mental health, fertility, or primary care, it’s important a vendor do more than check off a box. Employers should take a look under the hood to ensure quality of care and patient experience. To drive meaningful impacts on care, comprehensive fertility care can’t stop with virtual support. While there will continue to be an important place for virtual care in fertility journeys, especially related to education, employers like Walmart realize that fertility benefit vendors that have more oversight over all steps along the way, including in-person care, will see the most significant improvements in employee outcomes and experiences.
