Practice Management
A new joint venture combines a hospital system in New Jersey with an urgent care network, creating AM/PM Urgent Care with Englewood Health. Established in 2013, AM/PM Walk-in Urgent Care is owned by CEO Wesley Thek, MD. Its partner, Englewood Health, has 100 locations, delivering inpatient and outpatient care. The combined entity serves 2 counties in New Jersey with 8 urgent care centers as well as virtual care. Over time, the plan is to expand …
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Healthcare spending may show signs of moderating starting next year, but the trendline will continue its sharp upward climb nonetheless, according to new numbers released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Health Affairs. Overall, expect annual spending to reach $5.6 trillion this year, eventually climbing to $8.6 trillion by 2033. Health spending will likely consume 20.3% of GDP by 2033. Growth in 2024 is projected at 8.2%, followed by 7.1% growth …
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Nearly 800 rural hospitals across the United States are struggling financially with as many as 40% facing the immediate threat of closure, according to an analysis by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, which reviewed the most recent hospital cost reports submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services through June 2025. The center’s report categorizes rural hospitals into 2 levels of financial risk: those generally at risk; and those in immediate …
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A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis ranking states according to the number of emergency department (ED) visits found that West Virginia had the highest number of ED visits (596 per 1,000), while Nevada had the fewest (226 per 1,000) in 2023. The organization analyzed the most recent available community hospital data from the 1999-2023 American Hospital Association Annual Survey and compared it to population reports from the Census Bureau. Below are the top 10 states …
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Legislation in 2022 sought to expand access to the opioid use disorder treatment drug buprenorphine by eliminating previous caps on the number of patients a prescribing provider could manage and by eliminating prescriber waiver requirements. At the same time, pharmacists with prescribing authority were permitted to directly prescribe the medication without a collaborative agreement with a physician, although state-specific restrictive criteria could still apply. As a result of these changes, there was a significant increase …
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This month, Amazon engineered a significant restructuring of its healthcare leadership, reorganizing its Amazon Health Services division into 6 new business units. This overhaul was designed to simplify the structure of the large Amazon healthcare operation following a period of executive departures. In terms of clinical care delivery, Amazon’s One Medical offers membership-based services with a targeted focus on employer groups with same-day appointments and virtual care. Across the country, One Medical currently partners with …
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A new study suggests there has been a rise in higher acuity coding across certain outpatient services. Among urgent care centers, the proportion of visits coded at higher complexity levels (CPT 99204 and 99205) increased overall from 34.0% in 2018 to 40.6% in 2023, while visits coded at level 1 (CPT 99202) declined from 9.5% to 2.9% over the same period. The most significant increases in high-intensity coding were observed in cases involving “blood and …
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A recent federal budget proposal that’s floating around Washington sketches out plans to eliminate parts of the Health Resources and Services Administration and its Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), according to a JAMA Network news article. A provisional budget outline specifically mentions eliminating 4 rural health programs meant to sustain critical access hospitals in distress with a 25% cut for FORHP’s budget in fiscal year 2026. The impact of the cuts could be …
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When Cleveland Clinic announced a new policy beginning on June 1 that requires patients to pay their out-of-pocket copays when they arrive for their scheduled appointments, it created controversy for the high-profile nonprofit system. If a patient isn’t able to pay upon check-in for nonemergent appointments, it results in the appointment being cancelled. Urgent care is not included in the new policy, so patients visiting any of the Cleveland Clinic’s 42 centers will not need …
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A new survey of U.S. adults 50 aged years and older conducted in February by AARP further underscores the value of urgent care’s convenient access for communities. More than 80% of the 1,012 American adults sampled say there is an urgent care in their community, and 48% say they live within 10 minutes of an urgent care center. Another 27% say urgent care is 11-15 minutes away, 17% say it’s 16-30 minutes away, and just …
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