- Dr. Cheryl Pegus joined Walmart as govt vice chairman for well being and wellness in December 2020.
- Her departure comes as Walmart has confronted challenges rolling out well being clinics nationwide.
The carousel of executives coming and going from Walmart’s struggling well being division is taking one other flip.
Dr. Cheryl Pegus, Walmart’s govt vice chairman for well being and wellness, is taking over a job as a managing director for JPMorgan’s Morgan Well being division, Bloomberg first reported on Sunday.
Pegus will work on Morgan Well being’s mission of bettering employer-sponsored healthcare and investing in $250 million in promising well being firms, in keeping with a launch. She’s going to proceed to function a senior advisor for Walmart.
Pegus’s departure comes as Walmart’s well being division – which has seen quite a few govt departures over the previous few years – had confronted important challenges on reaching its formidable purpose of creating 4,000 well being clinics throughout the nation by 2029. As of October 14, Walmart Well being opened 32 clinics throughout 5 states. It is planning to open 16 new location in Florida in 2023.
The transfer is a serious blow as Walmart competes with the likes of Amazon, CVS and Walgreens to win an even bigger slice of the profitable $4.3 trillion well being care trade.
What’s subsequent for Walmart Well being
Although Walmart Well being will now not function with its chief of about two years, firm executives are nonetheless optimistic concerning the efficiency of the enterprise phase.
John Furner, Walmart US president and CEO, informed Insider in a press release in response to Pegus’s leaving that he’s “excited concerning the momentum now we have in Well being & Wellness and our skill to make an affect on the entry and affordability of healthcare in our communities.”
“The crew is well-positioned to execute our compelling technique of healthcare transformation,” Furner mentioned. “We’re grateful to Dr. Pegus for advancing our mission of serving to folks stay higher and more healthy, and we look ahead to persevering with to work along with her sooner or later.”
A Walmart spokesperson didn’t reply a query about who will likely be Pegus’s successor.
Pegus has greater than 20 years of expertise in well being care, most lately serving as chief medical officer at Cambia Well being Resolution earlier than becoming a member of Walmart in December 2020. Throughout her tenure at Walmart, Pegus expanded Walmart’s digital well being providing via the acquisition of MeMD and helped kind the Walmart Healthcare Analysis Institute to create larger fairness in and entry to scientific trial participation and analysis throughout the nation.
“Well being care innovation continues to be very a lot wanted, and I’m excited to assist this unimaginable Morgan Well being crew in accelerating choices that enhance outcomes,” Pegus mentioned in a press release.
Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Well being, mentioned in a press release that Pegus is “one of the revered leaders in well being care and brings scientific and well being care enterprise experience that can assist speed up the following section of Morgan Well being’s technique round inhabitants well being.”
Walmart’s well being management has been in flux
Although the transfer is to Morgan Well being’s achieve, it definitely creates a hiccup for Walmart Well being, which continues to face main challenges with govt departures.
Marcus Osborne, the earlier head of Walmart Well being Clinics, introduced he left the corporate at first of the yr. Together with his departure, the 5 executives who spearheaded the unique design of the clinics have left the corporate.
This contains Sean Slovenski, a prime Walmart Well being govt who left in August 2020; Karim Bennis, certainly one of Walmart’s chief working officers for well being and wellness; Dr. Thomas Van Gilder, the corporate’s former chief medical officer; and Phil Suiter, who served as the corporate’s chief wellness officer.
In response to those departures, Pegus bolstered the crew by bringing exterior well being care specialists, together with Dr. David Carmouche, who now serves as Walmart’s senior vice chairman of omnichannel care, and Dr. John Wigneswaran, the corporate’s chief medical officer.
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