Lisa Woods has always found joy in caring for others, and for the past 36 years, has focused her efforts on
"When I came to Walmart, I very quickly realized I love the culture, and I love the fact that our associates are at the center of everything we do," she says. This is especially true in all areas of health, and with locations in communities across the U.S., Woods wants her reach to expand beyond Walmart and influence healthcare in general. "We really try to think about how we can change healthcare in the country for the better."
The benefits offered by Walmart are rooted in physical, mental and
"We are constantly thinking about how we can support our associates across all three pillars," she says. "A big part of this is making sure that care is available when our associates need it."
As one of this year's Excellence in Benefits Awards honorees, Woods discusses the evolution of accessible healthcare offerings under her leadership, how AI is impacting benefits, and how employee feedback can change any leader's approach.
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How are you enhancing the quality of mental and physical healthcare for employees?
From the first day they come to the company, associates and their eligible family members [have access to] 20 face-to-face, telephonic or virtual mental health care visits per year.
[Another way is through offering care at] Centers of Excellence (CEO). We started on this journey long ago with transplants, but in 2012 we decided to focus on spine and heart and we quickly expanded that to hip and knee replacements. In 2015, we implemented Cancer Centers of Excellence focused on breast, lung and colorectal cancer — last year, we decided to expand our cancer COEs to cover virtually all cancers. We [also] added weight loss.
Why has access to care through virtual options been such a high priority?
There are places in the country where care is just not available. In 2015, we started a journey focused on virtual care. It started with simple things like ear infections and sinus [issues], and we were asking ourselves, how can we expand this and support associates who have asthma, diabetes — common things that you would go to primary care for.
We expanded in 2020 to pilot in three states, then decided to completely roll it out across the country in 2023. We've added lab work in the home, virtual physical therapy and virtual gut health. Mental health is another piece — we have psychiatry, psychology and therapy.
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Why did you decide to incorporate virtual care into your maternity benefits?
We were looking at data across the country, and were concerned — [about the number of] counties with no OB care. We decided to start a pilot in Georgia with doulas, and now we offer this to associates in all states who are on our medical plan. We have partnered with a company that provides virtual doula support, and associates still really appreciate it. They're not by their side during delivery, but it is an opportunity for the doula to coach our associates and participants about things like what to expect during delivery and what to ask the doctors.
How does employee feedback contribute to the success of benefits?
We are fortunate to have what we call the Open Door, where associates can share with anyone across the company, so we hear all kinds of feedback. [For example], associates were sharing with us that they really wanted fertility, so we started offering fertility coverage — IUI and IVF — a couple of years ago, and we have all these Walmart babies now.
We [also] encourage associates to share what they're hearing and what they think should be covered. We're balancing costs with the needs of associates and their families [who all] have a different journey from a benefits perspective.
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How are data and technology positively impacting benefits?
One of the things that I committed to is when we pilot something, we're going to share what works and what doesn't work. Centers of Excellence is part of that: We were seeing a total cost of care reduction of about 10% [with virtual care], which is huge. I have an opportunity to serve on a couple of different boards or committees, and I always share what worked and what didn't as nuggets for others in the industry to take away and think about.
Benefit leaders [also] need to be thinking about AI. Healthcare is super personal, and there are opportunities from an AI perspective to support our associates and their families in a different way than we have in the past. AI provides an opportunity for us to meet our associates where and when it matters most, and I'm very encouraged by that.
