Might the bubble burst for retail health clinics?

While retail health clinics have claimed for years that they’ll soon be opening thousands of new clinics in drug stores and supermarkets across the country, it appears the investment dollars for such expansion may be drying up. According to a May 7, 2008 Wall Street Journal article, “retail health clinic operators based in New York, Nevada, Indiana and Alabama have closed their doors, shuttering 69 clinics in 15 states, including ones operating inside outlets of Shopko Stores, Meijer Inc., Bi-Lo LLC, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Medicine Shoppe unit of Cardinal Health Inc.”

The biggest name in retail health clinics, CVS Caremark Corp., told the Journal it’s scaling back expansion plans for MinuteClinic and may close some locations that aren’t in CVS pharmacies.

Tom Charland of Merchant Medicine, LLC and former VP for strategy with MinuteClinic told the Journal: “We have seen fallout in this industry, on a smaller scale, that is not unlike the dot-com bubble. ... The big mistake was for people to think they could reach break-even in six months. People are learning this is an 18-to-24-month process to get to break-even.”