Costco offers $29 telehealth visit, follows Amazon, other retailers into health care

Costco is now offering low-cost health care services to its members, with prices starting as low as $29. This move puts Costco in line with other major retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, all seeking to address consumers’ concerns about the high costs of health care.

With a Costco membership, customers can now have a telehealth visit for $29. A standard lab test will cost $72 and a virtual therapy session will cost $79. These prices are a fraction of what uninsured people pay and they are sometimes even cheaper than a co-pay with insurance.

Costco is partnering with the online platform Sesame to offer the cheaper health care alternative.

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“Quality, great value and low price are what the Costco brand is known for,” David Goldhill, Sesame’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “When it comes to health care, Sesame also delivers high quality and great value — and a low price that will be appreciated by Costco Members when it comes to their own care.”

The move is similar to one made by Amazon earlier this year. Amazon acquired the primary care company One Medical to tap into the realm of virtual health care.

“We think health care is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention. Booking an appointment, waiting weeks or even months to be seen, taking time off work, driving to a clinic, finding a parking spot, waiting in the waiting room then the exam room for what is too often a rushed few minutes with a doctor, then making another trip to a pharmacy — we see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” said Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services. 

Dollar General rolled out mobile health clinics in January as part of its new DocGo On-Demand health services program. CVS and Walgreens are also expanding their clinics and primary care options. Walmart said it is doubling its footprint of in-store wellness centers.

Telehealth services are growing at a fast rate since the pandemic, and Costco is just the latest to enter the competitive health care market.