Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Spread the Word (and Offer to Help): Kids as Young as 12 Can Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19

The past few weeks have seen a jump in the number of Americans who are able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. While it’s still up to individual states to determine who is eligible, from a regulatory approval standpoint that population should soon include anyone 12 years of age and up thanks to an Emergency Use Authorization granted to the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine. All that’s left is for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to give …

New Data Confirm Patients Choose Urgent Care Over the ED for Lower-Acuity Complaints

The urgent care industry has been working tirelessly for decades to highlight its ability to provide immediate, high-quality care at a fraction of the cost of a trip to the emergency room. If a story published recently in Health Affairs is any indication, those efforts are paying off in reducing lower-acuity visits to the ED. Looking at insurance claims and enrollment data amassed by a managed care plan between 2008 and 2019, researchers noted that …

Fees Are Up, Demand Is Down—Two Reasons You Should Be Pushing COVID-19 Vaccination

As with testing supplies early on in the pandemic, most urgent care operators have had a hard time getting their hands on enough doses of COVID-19 vaccine to really make a difference in their communities. That could be changing in the near future, however, as multiple states are reporting that the demand for COVID-19 vaccines is waning—leaving them with the unexpected challenge of ensuring that their supply is put to good use while it’s viable. …

With Schools Letting More Kids on Site, Be Prepared to Engage Cautious (and Nervous) Parents

In many parts of the country, it’s been more than a year since the majority of children attended school on site, full time. Now that roughly half the adult population has gotten at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and children as young as 16 are eligible (with that threshold expected to be lowered in the near future), many districts are inviting more kids back in. Not all parents are as comfortable with this prospect …

Millennials Are Entering Their 40s—and They’re Going to Need You More Than Ever

This year marks a milestone for Millennials, as the oldest members of that generation (defined by Pew Research as anyone born between 1981 and 1996) turn 40-years-old. According to a CNBC report drawn from a Harris Poll, 44% of them already have at least one chronic health condition. While some are clearly beyond the scope of urgent care (eg, neurodevelopmental disorders and multiple sclerosis), others include high cholesterol, hypertension, migraine headaches, and other conditions for …

Schools Are Looking to Test for COVID-19 on a Widespread Basis. Are You in the Running to Do It?

California and Virginia are among the states to reveal recently how they plan to address large-scale testing for COVID-19. While their approaches are distinct, each might offer clues as to how your urgent care operation could support area school systems while possibly introducing new patients to all the services you’re capable of providing. California, after an 11-district pilot program, announced that it is expanding coverage for rapid diagnostic testing of students and staff throughout the …

The U.S. Is in a Precarious Place with COVID-19. It’s Time for Urgent Care to Step In

COVID-19 vaccinations are being administered at a good clip in most states—with many governors reacting by easing restrictions on social gatherings. Unfortunately, those events coincide with more than half the country seeing record rates of infection. One new development that could be cause for optimism (for the health of the country and the future of urgent care) is the realization that monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) seem to mitigate the effects of SARS-CoV-2. In fact, the Department …

JUCM Webinar: Fair Reimbursement Starts with Compliant Coding. Are You Getting What You Deserve?

As if recovery from economic hardships wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t challenging enough, a slew of new coding changes took effect January 1. If you’re having trouble keeping up with the right way to code every procedure—thereby assuring you’re doing what you can to be reimbursed fairly—you’re not alone. That’s why JUCM invited Christian Molstrom, MD to lead a two-part discussion of 2021 Coding Best Practices for Providers. For the second live webinar, Dr. …

‘Alive’ or ‘Dead,’ Urgent Care Is Making Headlines for Its Resiliency and Growth

Anyone who works in urgent care and saw an industry article published recently under The Business Journals umbrella was probably taken aback by a headline that began Urgent Care Is Dead. Given that this was followed by Long Live Urgent Care, it seems the author of the headline was trading on the old expression The king is dead, long live the king for shock value. If you read the article, though, you were probably pleasantly …

Israel’s COVID-19 Death Toll Was Zero Last Thursday. Is the U.S. Heading for That Day?

Widespread vaccination is being credited for helping Israel reduce its rate of COVID-19 infection, with the crowning achievement being a day free of deaths attributed to the virus for the first time since last June. That same day, only 0.04% of tests administered turned up positive. Just days before, the country passed the 5 million mark in vaccinations, meaning nearly 54% of the population—and 80% of those over age 16—had gotten at least one COVID-19 …

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