Best Buy, GE HealthCare looking to expand retail healthcare presence

Companies such as CVS Health Corporation (CVS) and Walgreens (WBA) already have a presence in retail healthcare, but companies like Best Buy (BBY), GE HealthCare (GEHC), and Walmart (WMT) are looking to expand their presence in the sector as well.

Yahoo Finance Health Care Reporter Anjalee Khemlani takes a look at the ways these companies are trying to grow in healthcare. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: Retail health care is a growing area of interest for many traditional retailers. But most are in the early stages of figuring out where they can make money. GE Health Care is looking at consumer medical devices while some of the big box retailers like Walmart and even Best Buy are looking for ways to get a piece of the $4 trillion health care pie. Yahoo finance's Anjalee Khemlani has more on this story for us, Anj.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's right, Seana. You, of course, know the players that are in the retail health care space thinking of CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens who have been increasingly providing provider services or checkups. But now, we're starting to see, really, a growth in demand for things like medical devices especially as more care gets put in the home. And that's where companies like Best Buy and GE are starting to take a look at where they can play.

Best Buy, for example, in a recent interview told me that they are looking at bringing some of those medical devices into the stores, taking advantage of their big footprint as well as Geek Squad as support for these individuals, especially catering to seniors and the like. So they're talking about you know putting, for example, scooters in the stores, and hearing aids as well, especially as they're starting to roll out what they're calling Experience Stores, so where you get to try the product. That's something that's really been a focus for them.

They've already been building out their health department which is something that has been sort of quietly working on deals since about 2017. $1.2 billion already invested in some of these deals for tech platforms or at-home device companies, Geek Squad, like I mentioned, to help the seniors, and those Experience Stores.

And I thought it was quite interesting. And so I asked, well, what else could we expect? What kinds of products do we anticipate rolling out, things that could be used by the elderly.

And I got that part from the president of Best Buy Health saying, quote, "You would indeed see new categories like electric scooters, next to traditional tech customers love to see from Best Buy like TVs." But in addition to that, they have the interactive over-the-counter hearing aids which we know is a recent progress from Medicare. So all of these things coming together.

Meanwhile, GE, you think about them as just a retail product maker for a long time, right, and appliances? But they're also pretty big in the medical device space. And they, too, are starting to see this trend develop.

And looking at where they get to play a role, so they've been doing stuff like creating handheld at-home devices. They recently acquired a company called Caption Health which helps with AI guiding for those, say, like an ultrasound machine, a portable ultrasound machine. And that could really put these products in consumers' hands.

And they're looking at partnerships with some of these retailers. One of the things that I was told was, you know, think about maybe getting a mammogram while you're at Walmart or CVS? You know, why not? So there's certainly opportunity. And you're starting to see the segment really take off now.

BRAD SMITH: All right. Anjalee, thank you so much for tracking all of that, continuing to keep it on our radars as well. Yahoo Finance's own Anjalee Khemlani, appreciate it.