Practice Management
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ plan to transition from a Social Security number-based ID system to a randomly generated identifier is moving forward. The agency won’t start mailing new cards until April 2018, and the whole process will take nearly 2 years to complete, but in the meantime CMS is rolling out a provider- and patient-awareness campaign to assure the transition is as smooth as possible. The new Medicare beneficiary identifier (MBI) will …
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Electronic health record vendor eClinicalWorks’ has been fined $155 million for violating the False Claims Act. The company’s misfortune could be the urgent care industry’s (and patients’) gain, however, by making it easier for healthcare providers to switch from one EHR system to another. eClinicalWorks was sued over claims that it falsely certified that its EHR met all government criteria and that it failed to adequately test its software before release; to adequately debug systems …
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Texas Children’s Hospital may not have an actual hospital in Austin, TX, but they’ll have a presence by virtue of plans to open pediatric urgent care centers and other facilities there over the next 3 years. Those centers, along with primary care practices, pediatric specialty clinics, and maternal-fetal medical practices, will be standalone locations that are not connected to any physical hospital in the vicinity. In effect, Texas Children’s will be using urgent care and its …
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Some California legislators are hoping to push through a single-payer healthcare bill that would cost the state an estimated $400 billion—more than the entire national budget of Honduras (and 116 more countries across the globe). If passed, the bill would in effect eliminate health insurance companies there and provide government-funded health coverage for all residents. If it needs to be said, funding the plan would require “significant tax increases,” according to legislative analysts. On the …
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After stutters and starts, Texas became the last state in the U.S. to enact legislation allowing doctors to treat patients virtually. Proponents argue that it was sorely needed, as Texas ranks 46th in the country in the number of primary care physicians per capita—71.4 PCPs for every 100,000 residents, according to telehealth provider Teledoc; 35 counties don’t have a family physician at all. Teladoc actually started operating in Texas in 2005, but the state medical …
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Going to the emergency room for a simple sore throat will cost Georgians who get their insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia as of July 1, when a new rule designed to cut unnecessary healthcare costs goes into effect. In a nutshell, it demands that patients choose another care setting unless they have a true emergency—urgent care being the most likely source, given the difficulty many find when trying to make timely appointments …
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Most device makers and over half of providers surveyed say a virtual attack on devices is “likely” in the next year. Unfortunately, the new study by the Ponemon Institute, working on behalf of Synopsys, also reveals that medical device manufacturers and healthcare providers are simply not prepared to defend themselves—and the patient data they’re entrusted with. Around 80% of respondents find developing secure devices to be a “major challenge” thanks to coding errors, deficient expertise …
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Urgent care thrives on repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth from loyal patients. Although many urgent care centers track the percentage of new vs established patients—those who have been seen in the past 3 years—few measure frequency of use by individual patients. This is an important measure used in other service businesses, however, based on the assumption that customers who patronize their favorite businesses more often also spend more money, and encourage others (either in person and …
Read MoreCase This 42-year-old woman presents to your urgent care center with a 2-hour history intermittent dizziness and vomiting. She denies diarrhea or exposure to ill persons. Further history reveals that she has recently had some epigastric discomfort. In the exam room, she is alert and oriented. She seems comfortable, in fact. In addition, you find: Lungs: Minimal bilateral symmetric wheezing Cardiovascular: Regular rate and rhythm without murmur, rub, or gallop Abdomen: Soft and nontender without …
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