Practice Management
Pardee UNC Health Care in North Carolina and WVU Medicine in West Virginia are among the hospitals and systems advising area residents to make full use of local urgent care centers as flu cases mount, slamming emergency rooms with more visitors than they can handle efficiently. Pardee is pleading with area residents who have flu-like symptoms—or any non–life-threatening complaint—to stay away from the ED and instead visit one of its urgent care facilities. In getting …
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Banner Health is joining Select Medical on an initiative to combine operations of more than 38 physical therapy centers in Arizona and four acute inpatient rehabilitation hospitals located in Phoenix. Banner, which operates 33 urgent care centers in Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming, will be the majority owner and Select Medical the managing partner. Construction on three new acute inpatient rehabilitation hospitals will start later this year. Down the road, some existing hospitals will be consolidated …
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Davam Urgent Care in Montgomery County, TX and New England Urgent Care in the Hartford, CT area are among the operators extending themselves on behalf of those in need this holiday season. Davam is donating $500 it took in administering flu shots in the month of November to help Magnolia Independent School District continue recovery from Hurricane Harvey. New England Urgent Care is running its first-ever holiday toy and coat drive. All four locations are …
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Emergency department spending jumped 85% over a 7-year period ending in 2015, according to new research by the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), even though ED use remained relatively stable. The reason for the increase in spending, according to the report, is that hospitals coded and charged more for high-severity cases during that timeframe. Drawing on charges associated with more than 70 million ED bills, HCCI found that visits billed to CPT codes 99285 and …
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Whether web-, cloud-, or app-based, the virtual care market is expected to continue growing as technologies and business models keep evolving through at least 2027, according to a report form Persistence Market Research (PMR). Video applications (ie, via laptop, tablet, smartphones, and desktops) are expected to be more popular and prevalent than straight telephone communication or kiosks at employer sites, pharmacies, and hospitals. The shortage in primary care providers will also ensure that need grows …
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The line between payers and providers bent even further this week, as UnitedHealth Group Inc. announced plans to buy HealthCare Partners from DaVita Inc. It’s the second major acquisition of its kind for UHC this year; the company paid $2.3 billion for Surgical Care Affiliates just last March. The latest proposed deal came to light just days after CVS Health said it’s buying Aetna. It’s all part of a strategy for health insurers to lower …
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A study by West Virginia University has shown that urgent care not only has great potential to improve the chance for positive health outcomes in rural areas, but also holds great promise for operators who are willing to make the investment in the country. Joshua Hall, associate professor of economics and director of the Center for Free Enterprise at WVU’s College of Business and Economics, led a team of researchers who considered the entry of …
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Trying to relocate nonemergent patients from overcrowded emergency rooms to clinics and urgent care centers by ambulance led to out-of-control costs in the San Diego area. In addition, it’s been shown that some 30% of people who call 911 for an ambulance didn’t even need emergent care to begin with. So, health officials hit on the idea of calling a taxi or an Uber to take patients where they need to be. The question is, …
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Essential Health says it went to great lengths to make sure employees had time to get their flu shots or apply for an opt-out on medical, religious, or philosophical grounds. It also tried to make it as easy as possible by offering multiple, free vaccine clinics, sending vaccine carts around so workers wouldn’t even have to leave their post. It provided ample incentive, too, notifying workers that if they did not get vaccinated (or an …
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It’s a strange phenomenon, but there are data to back it up: The emergency room at St. Charles Bend in Bend, OR is getting more traffic—it’s just not necessarily treating more patients. Nearly 5% of the people who check in to the ED leave without being seen (LWBS) because the wait is simply too long. That’s nearly three times the national average. The Bulletin newspaper in Bend noted that LWBS was the most common diagnosis …
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