Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Carbon Health Inks Risk-Based Contract with UHC

In a recent webcast, Steve Cain, CEO of UnitedHealthcare of California, and Myoung Cha, Chief Strategy Officer of Carbon Health, announced that the insurer will begin an at-risk primary care arrangement for the state’s commercial PPO market in partnership with Carbon Health, starting in January 2024. The deal represents Carbon Health’s first at-risk arrangement. Under the contract, Carbon Health will be accountable for the total cost of care for UnitedHealthcare’s PPO-covered lives in the state over the …

Perfect Timing: How Urgent Care and APP’s May Be Fueling Each Other’s Growth

New data from unrelated sources indicate that nurse practitioners and physician assistants (known collectively as advanced practice providers, or APPs) and urgent care may be intersecting more frequently, and more beneficially, than ever before. While the nursing education group Nursing Process notes that emergency departments/urgent care centers are among the top 12 settings in which NPs are in high demand, an article published by US News & World Report puts NPs in the top spot …

Patients Are More Likely to Trust ‘Independent’ Practices—and the Reason Is Interesting

It’s well-established that patients value urgent care because it’s typically much more expedient than the emergency room, and certainly primary care practices. Proximity and savvy marketing may help you differentiate yourself from competitors who offer those same advantages, but are there even more basic considerations that draw patients to one locations vs another? New data released by Software Advice suggest that patients who choose independent healthcare practices vs those owned by large corporations do so …

A Small Sample, but Interesting Answers: ‘Emergency Room, Urgent Care, or Virtual Care?’

Educating the public on the benefits of urgent care vs the emergency room and other settings is a central challenge in the urgent care industry. This is especially true when it comes to getting through to patients who will at some point experience quintessential urgent care-worthy symptoms like cough, sore throat, and eye infection. The results of a recent poll that Cigna posted on LinkedIn, asking Where should you go for care if you are …

Healthcare Companies Are Cutting Jobs—Bringing Them Closer to a Typical Urgent Care Model

MedExpress is the latest healthcare company to announce downsizing designed to trim operating expenses. WSAZ News in Huntington/Charleston, WV reported the company is laying off all registered nurses at 150 locations as early as September 7, in concert with even more widespread layoffs in the UnitedHealth Group/Optum universe. It’s a move not likely to be adopted by other urgent care operations, which for the most part do not count RNs among their clinical teams to …

Urgent Care Is Ahead of an Ever-Expanding Curve on Employing Advanced-Practice Providers

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants—or, collectively, advanced-practice providers (APPs)—have been essential members of the urgent care clinical team for years. Their presence on the payroll enables urgent care operators to offer high-quality care to more patients on a daily basis than would be possible without them, or with an all-physician team. Now it seems even more healthcare employers are waking up to the benefits of working with APPs. According to new data from the U.S. …

Private Equity Has Emerged as a Major Player in Urgent Care—But Not Everyone Is Celebrating

Private equity (PE) investors started taking an interest in urgent care several years ago, and have continued to pony up considerable capital that is pushing industry expansion to new heights. The “yin” to that “yang” is that some healthcare providers are pushing back on what they seem to see as overinvolvement by PE in institutional operations and decision-making. An article featured on LinkedIn recently noted that the American College of Emergency Physicians has taken a …

Emergency Rooms Are in a Dangerous Bind—and They’re Pleading for Help from Urgent Care

JUCM News has been bringing you updates on the consequences of reduced hospital services for communities all over the country for some time now. Something that’s gone under the radar, however, is how difficult cost-cutting measures like reducing services can be on the providers who work in hospitals. Patients don’t stop coming just because a department closes, and too often they flock to the emergency room. At South Shore Health in South Weymouth, MA they …

Urgent Care Becomes More Appealing as Patients Stray from Traditional Provider Relationships

The ability to access healthcare at any single point of access is becoming less appealing to healthcare consumers, according to new research from Wolters Klewer. Rather, a trend toward “decentralized care based on demographic differences, cost-driven decision-making, and shifting trust in care providers and settings” is pushing them to less traditional sites like retail pharmacies and urgent care centers. The authors called urgent care a “preferred setting” based on the findings that 57% of women …

Would a Physician Assistant by Any Other Name Add Any More or Less Value to Your UC Operation?

Physician assistants and nurse practitioners (known collectively as advanced practice providers, or APPs) provide significant care in UCCs across the country. Given that they typically are paid less than physicians while also having the training to perform relatively complex tasks, many view them as indispensable to the success of an urgent care center. It should be of interest, then, that a movement has been afoot for several years now for PAs to change their title …