Healthcare in the Express Lane: The Emergence of Retail Clinics Urgent message: Retail-based healthcare clinics are a growing phenom- enon. A report from the California HealthCare Foundation, excerpted here, says public perception is split, and their economic viability remains to be seen. How do their services stack up against those offered by urgent care? he first in-store clinics appeared in 2000 in the Min- neapolis-St. Paul (MN) metropolitan area and were operated by QuickMedx, which later became Minute- Clinic. The company’s founder, Rick Krieger, says the business idea came to him when he tried to get his son in to see a doctor for a strep throat test. He recalls, “We started talking about why there was not a way to just get a simple question answered or a simple test, like strep throat, done. Why was there not some way to just slip in and be seen quickly? Wasn’t there some way to get care in a timely manner for a rela- tively simple illness? A quick, convenient way to diag- nose without waiting in the ER or clinic for two hours? We are not talking about diabetes, cancer or heart dis- ease. We are talking about colds and throat and ear infections.” 1 Krieger and two business partners (one of whom was a family doctor) set up pilot clinics in cooperation with Cub Foods, a local grocery chain. The first clinics charged a $35 flat fee for rapid testing, diagnosis, and prescrip- tions for 11 common medical conditions, including strep throat, influenza, ear infection, pink eye, and sea- sonal allergies. They did not accept insurance, which Krieger explains as a deliberate, strategic choice “to Prepared for the California HealthCare Foundation by Mary Kate Scott, Scott & Company. Reprinted courtesy of the California HealthCare Foun- dation. The full report can be found at www.chcf.org. w w w. j u c m . c o m © Tom DePrenda T compete on a purely retail level and be able to profit on a copayment-type basis.” The pilot program, though limited, was considered successful, and the founders began to formulate an aggressive growth strategy. In 2005, MinuteClinic appointed a new CEO: Michael Howe, the former CEO of Arby’s. Meanwhile, other clinic companies and retail- ers entered the game, and there are now a dozen clinic operators running about 90 clinics across the country, a dozen more planning to open clinics in the near future, and hundreds of store openings planned for 2007. As the trend has gathered momentum, the medical and busi- The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine | October 2006 27