Marketplace

Walgreens’ partnership with MedExpress and CVS Health’s acquisition of Aetna have some analysts wondering if the drugstore kingpins might up their clinical game and try to enter the urgent care marketplace in a substantive way, according to a new article in Forbes magazine. As we’ve told you, Walgreens is already running a pilot program with MedExpress to operate urgent care centers in 15 drugstores in Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. In each location, …

Urgent care’s roots are in entrepreneurial physicians who felt there was a better way to practice medicine, and blazed a new path that led to the industry we see today. As urgent care veterans know, though, it wasn’t too long before health systems recognized that a) the model really does work and b) urgent care was creeping in on their territory. So, they started buying up existing urgent care operations or starting their own. Consequently, …

Urgent care veterans—and any patient whose been hit with a surprise bill—know that the cost of urgent care is far lower than the cost of a trip to a freestanding emergency room, even when the resultant diagnoses are the same. And yet, the vast majority of visits to freestanding EDs are related to nonemergent complaints that could be safely managed in an urgent care center at a fraction of the cost. UnitedHealthGroup just added more …

Millennials and “Gen Zers” are more likely than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers to shun traditional primary care offices in favor of urgent care and other walk-in options, according to a newly released report from Accenture. Lack of convenience and responsiveness are among top reasons cited. It’s not just an American phenomenon, either; the nearly 8,000 consumers who took part in the research chimed in not only from the U.S. but also from Australia, England, …

We’ve been tracking the confluence of healthcare delivery and private industry, especially among tech companies, for some time now. The latest could be a move that ultimately puts Amazon in direct competition with urgent care centers for some patients. The company has been trying to forge a new link in the healthcare supply chain by getting into the home health test market. Within the past few months, according to CNBC, Amazon was in talks to …

Feeling the pressure to improve outcomes while simultaneously cutting costs, an ever-growing number of hospitals and health systems are investing heavily in urgent care. Of particular note are four health systems that splurged in the fourth quarter of 2018. Becker’s Hospital Review highlighted the following in a recent post: San Francisco-based Dignity Health partnered with GoHealth Urgent Care to buy six urgent care centers operated by Golden State Urgent care. McLaren Health Care, in Grand …

Frequent reports from members who get stuck with surprise bills after visiting a freestanding emergency room have moved the Texas AARP to issue a warning to its members: Make sure you understand the type of facility you’re visiting, and verify what the cost of your care is likely to be, before you receive care. The problem, the organization says, is that many people walk into a freestanding ED thinking it’s actually an urgent care center—with …

Recognizing what you’ve known for years—that the appeal of urgent care to the U.S. patient population continues to grow, with no signs of diminishing—US News & World Report turned its attention to why that’s the case in a recent issue. Calling the rise of urgent care “meteoric,” the article calls out three primary factors—accessibility and convenience, cost savings, and array of services—as chiefly responsible for drawing more patients every year, with the number of facilities …

FastMed Urgent Care and NextCare Holdings, Inc. have announced plans to join forces in a merger that would create a company with 251 urgent care centers in 10 states. Under the terms of the agreement, Urgent Care Holdings of America, LLC, doing business as FastMed Urgent Care, would acquire 100% of NextCare Holdings, Inc. If it’s approved, closing is expected to come within the next 60 days. As a standalone company, FastMed owns and operates …

CVS Health’s MinuteClinic unit just started providing virtual healthcare in Nebraska, bringing the number of states in which patients can be seen without visiting one of its clinics to 16. MinuteClinic Video Visits are now available 24/7 using any mobile device. The company charges a flat fee of $59 for the “visit,” payable via credit card or debit card, but CVS says patients will be able to start using their insurance to cover the cost …