Walmart plans to expand its specialty HIV outreach

David Rosario remembers the late 1980s with mixed feelings. He achieved his goal of becoming a professional dancer in New York City, but in that world he also lost many of his young friends to AIDS. There were few treatment options available at the time for the disease that afflicted the gay community in particular.

“It was sad at the time,” Rosario said. “There was nothing, so these beautiful people lost their lives.”

Now, Rosario owns a restaurant in New Jersey with her husband. Every month, he gets a drug from his local Wal-Mart pharmacy that makes HIV undetectable and non-transmissible — a possibility unimaginable just a generation ago. But that ease of access now gives him hope.

“It’s not a big deal, terribly big for me, but for a lot of these young boys who are looking for relationships and stuff, I think it’s a game-changer,” he said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates New HIV infections decreased by 12% in recent years, from 36,500 new cases in 2017 to 32,000 in 2021. However, racial and ethnic disparities remain evident, with people of color accounting for a disproportionate share of new HIV diagnoses. African Americans accounted for 40% of new cases in 2021, and Hispanics accounted for 29%, according to CDC data.

Walmart It launched a pilot HIV pharmacy program in late 2021, targeting more than half a dozen severely affected communities, including Rosario County in New Jersey.

“We can see from the data that there’s a need here — there’s a higher rate of HIV infection,” said Kevin Host, vice president of pharmacy at Walmart.

Now, the retail giant plans to expand its program to more than 80 specialized HIV facilities across nearly a dozen states by the end of this year.

The company’s pharmacists have undergone specialized training in HIV conditions and HIV treatment and prevention medications. A big part of that is how you start a conversation with patients who may be at risk.

“Getting patients to talk about their condition can be a challenge,” said pharmacist Gemima Kleine. “There’s a stigma around it, and it’s better than it used to be, but it’s not gone.”

Last year, while more than half of non-Hispanic white patients had coverage for pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, CDC data shows only 13.6% of Hispanics and 6.9% of African Americans Patients are covered with medication that helps prevent transmission of the virus.

To help bridge the gap, Walmart and two of its big pharmaceutical competitors, CVS Health And Walgreenshave signed the Department of Health and Human Services’s initiative Ending the HIV epidemic by 2030 By making antivirals more widely available and providing support services.

“There are some medications where maybe if you miss a dose, it’s not the worst thing and you won’t have much of an effect, but with AIDS drugs, compliance is very important,” Klein said.

CVS has made HIV testing available at its Minute clinics and helped patients get prescriptions without out-of-pocket costs through the government program known as Ready, Set, PrEP.

Similarly, Walgreens has trained more than 3,000 pharmacists to provide treatment advice, provide ongoing testing and facilitate free home delivery of HIV medications to help encourage patients to adhere to medication regimens.

And Walmart has seen its outreach — to local health clinics and community groups that help patients obtain medical coverage in hard-hit communities — starting to pay off.

“When they know we have additional training and services to help their patients, we’ll start to see them come in, and that’s when we’ll reach out,” Host said. “It really was an amazing marriage of community and business.”

On June 27, as part of National HIV Testing Day, Walmart will also join forces with other pharmacies and offer free HIV testing at many specialty pharmacies.

The spread of the HIV program came as major pharmacies focused on expanding their healthcare services. They hope that initiatives such as specialty pharmacies will reaffirm their role as community retail health providers in the minds of consumers – and improve outcomes for patients.

“Hopefully they’ll roll out something like this in smaller towns and cities — maybe things are hard to get or they’re just unaware,” Rosario said.

Correction: This story has been updated to show where Walmart will be offering free HIV testing on June 27; The company will offer the program at select pharmacy locations.