Walmart appoints former Healthways President to its healthcare arm

Walmart has revealed that it has appointed Sean Slovenski to its healthcare team. Former Vice President of Innovation at healthcare giant Humana and President of Healthways, Slovenski will no doubt aim to provide stronger business ties between the retail business and Humana.

Operating within the healthcare industry for over 20 years, Slovenski is a renowned figure in transforming businesses, driving new healthcare innovations and becoming the leader behind the development of health and wellness products and services, such as the first online personal coaching service.

In his new role, Slovenski is set to report to Walmart’s President and CEO, Greg Foran, Bloomberg has reported, and will join the business next month.

In April this year, it was reported that Walmart was in early talks to acquire Humana, following on from Aetna’s failure to acquire the company. Health insurance stocks rose upon the news.

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The two companies remain in close partnership, where Humana houses representatives within Walmart stores, as well as Sam Club brands and in store clinics in Texas, Georgia and South Carolina.

As Walmart aims to expand its healthcare portfolio and cement its position within the industry by disrupting traditional models of care, it will look towards Slovenski’s expertise to further drive down escalating healthcare costs and provide tailored solutions to the growing market, whilst supporting individuals through the US Medicare programme.

CVS Health’s $69bn acquisition of health insurer Aetna, and Cigna’s acquisition of Express Scripts are placing increased pressures on traditional services, with vertical integration across the M&A sector becoming a hot topic for healthcare providers.

Additionally, new players such as Amazon are looking at ways to disrupt traditional ways of working through not only partnering with other multinational companies, but are also working on solutions of their own, with voice recognition technology, Alexa, being a key example.

Amazon has also entered the pharmaceutical distribution market with its acquisition of PillPack and is in talks with digital prescription company Xealth, further placing increased pressures on traditional models of care.