Practice Management
With an ongoing physician shortage expected to get worse in the coming years, the flexibility and cost advantages offered by urgent care could improve access to quality care for many while strengthening the industry’s place in the continuum of care. Rural areas are being hit especially hard, as are states with higher concentrations of minorities. Savvy urgent care operators will look to those areas when considering new locations. Some states are even willing to sweeten …
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Southeast Michigan is seeing a surge of urgent care growth this spring—and industry watchers are saying operators can thank President Obama, in a roundabout way. Regional growth started to pick up speed after the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) was passed in 2010, fueled by an influx of newly insured patients who need care immediately, but who may have been steered into urgent care by employers hoping to stem rising emergency room bills. With …
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The knock on retail clinics like those found in retail chains and big-box stores is that they offer a limited menu of services, administered most often by nonphysicians. One pharmacy is bucking that trend by bringing a physician into the fold to create a hybrid community drugstore/ urgent care center that provides a higher level of care in a proper exam room. Sona Pharmacy + Clinic in Asheville, NC bills itself as “a different kind …
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If you’re looking to build a new urgent care facility, the first question you’re likely to ask is: How are we going to pay for this? Regional Medical Center (RMC) in Orangeburg, SC is looking to its surrounding community for help by way of using tax dollars to construct a new urgent care center. Brenda Williams, RMC’s vice president of strategy and development, says the emergency room is packed with people seeking nonemergent care. RMC …
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More primary care physicians understand urgent care’s rightful place in the continuum of care—and the advantages it might offer traditional office-based practices, according to a new article in Medical Economics magazine (How Urgent Care Relates to Physicians’ Practices, http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/how-urgent-care-relates-physicians-practices). David Meyers, MD, chief medical officer for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, reflects that “urgent care centers help put resources in the right places” by providing immediate care to those who need it at …
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Most Americans understand their healthcare options, but diverse age groups value different attributes when deciding where to get that care, according to a new survey by the Urgent Care Association of America. Quality factors, such as having a physician on site (a prevalent urgent care attribute compared with retail clinics more often staffed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants), were more important to patients in older age groups, while affordability and location were more important …
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Acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Andy Slavitt has acknowledged that Healthcare.gov, the platform through which previously uninsured Americans have accessed coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”), has “failed millions” since its launch more than 2 years ago. While he claims inherent problems in the system have been fixed, he says he recognizes the consequences of clunky EHR systems, low reimbursements, burnout, and various compliance requirements for primary care providers—consequences …
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IMS Health Holdings Inc. and Quintiles Transnational Holdings are merging in an all-stock deal aimed at creating “a leading portfolio of anonymous patient records, technology-enabled data collection, and observational research experts to address critical healthcare issues of cost, value, and patient outcomes.” The new company, to be called Quintiles IMS Holdings, says its combined strength will be to support drug development from inception through demonstrating the value of new medicines. The 2015 combined revenue of …
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Wall Street analysts have predicted that Optum would add 25 to 30 urgent care centers per year through acquisition and startups, but on a recent call with analysts the company predicted it would grow at a quicker pace on its way to operating clinics in 75 markets. A key step in that strategy, as we reported, was buying MedExpress for the urgent care centers it operates in 14 states. Optum still says those locations will …
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Apparently, patients don’t see a need to pay Cadillac prices for the “Cadillac” of healthcare services (wherever they may exist). Most participants in a new report published in Health Affairs don’t associate higher cost with higher quality when it comes to making healthcare decisions—a departure from the expected consumer mindset when it comes to buying other goods and services. Among the questions included in the survey: “Would you say higher prices are typically a sign …
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