Here are eight Walmart Healthcare updates Becker's has covered since Aug. 4:
1. Walmart laid off 200 corporate workers amid falling profits and an effort to restructure in August.
2. Walmart, along with CVS and Walgreens, was ordered to pay two opioid-ravaged Ohio counties $650.5 million for the companies' part in fueling the opioid epidemic there. A related November jury verdict found the companies ignored signs of opioid abuse while dispensing large quantities of the drugs.
3. Walmart expanded abortion coverage in employee healthcare plans. The benefits cover abortion under the following conditions: health risk to the mother, rape, incest, miscarriage, lack of fetal viability and ectopic pregnancy.
4. Optum now provides analytics and decision support tools for some Walmart Health centers in Florida and Georgia as part of a partnership with UnitedHealth Group.
5. Walmart joined hundreds of provider groups, hospitals and virtual care companies to send a joint letter to the Senate to pass a two-year extension of telehealth policies that were enacted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
6. Walmart settled for $65 million in West Virginia lawsuits that accused the company of oversupplying opioids.
7. Howard Hacker will take on the role of president of health and wellness compliance at Walmart beginning Oct. 17.
8. Walmart now covers fertility treatments under its insurance plan through a partnership with family-building startup Kindbody.