Practice Management
The words chest pain get the immediate attention of clinicians in any practice setting, including urgent care. The question of calculating risk for a major event is not quite as clear-cut, however. One assessment tool, the HEART Score for Major Adverse Cardiac Events (MACE), has been validated to predict 6-week risk of major adverse cardiac events in patients 21 years of age and older presenting with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome. Michael Weinstock, MD, led a live …
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As in other parts of the country, the number of urgent care centers and other walk-in facilities continues to grow in Massachusetts. That’s great news for our industry, but the potential for urgent care to positively affect healthcare spending there has yet to be fulfilled. The problem, also as in some other parts of the country, is that too many people are still going to the emergency room for nonemergent complaints, according to the Commonwealth’s …
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A good scare can be part of the fun on Halloween. For kids, it’s most likely due to the spirit of the season or that one neighbor whose decorations are always a little over-the-top. For parents, though, the fear may be over concerns that their children will receive treats tainted with pins, razor blades, or worse while they’re canvassing the neighborhood in costume. Velocity Urgent Care is offering to scan candy using their x-ray machines …
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Especially now that flu season is upon us, nervous parents may be visiting urgent care centers with children who are suffering from a cold out of concern that it could be influenza. Relieved as they may be to learn that it’s “just” a cold, urge Mom and Dad to let their offspring ride out the symptoms instead of giving them decongestants. Children under 6 years of age should not take decongestants at all, and parents …
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You may recall reading here just weeks ago that Urgent Care Group (UCG), backed by a pair of investment firms, was buying seven MEDcare Urgent Care locations in South Carolina. UCG now plans to nearly double that number by acquiring Medac Urgent Care, with its six urgent care centers and one occupational medicine location in North Carolina for an undisclosed sum. UCG has partnered with Capital Alignment Partners and Harbert Management on both deals.
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When Walgreens takes possession of 14 of McLaren Healthcare’s pharmacies in Michigan, it will be more than a straightforward acquisition of real estate and assets. Rather, the two parties’ businesses will become intertwined to some degree, with McLaren’s opening up retail clinics inside Walgreens stores, and Walgreens appropriating the health system’s prescription files and site pharmacy inventories. One aim, according to industry analysts, is to reach younger consumers who have already illustrated an interest in …
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Financial barriers and difficulty in assessing immunization histories are among the toughest subjects for clinicians to tackle when talking to adult patients about vaccinations, according to a study just published in the The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. The report, which focused on pneumococcal vaccination, noted that over 95% of respondents reported they “routinely” check adult patients’ vaccination status, and 88% said they found the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control …
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The largest generational segment in the United States today—the 83 million “Millennials” born between 1981 and 1996—are demonstrating a preference for the convenience of walk-in care facilities compared with an ongoing relationship with a traditional primary care office-based physician, according to new data released by the Kaiser Family Foundation. It’s not just the convenience, though; speed of service, price transparency, and connectivity were also mentioned as key attributes that appealed to them. Of all the …
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Medical practices—including urgent care centers—are the sites of financial crimes far more often than they should be. From sloppy bookkeeping to outright embezzlement, the consequences of not minding the books closely could be catastrophic for your business and your reputation. Let us interrupt you from thinking It couldn’t happen to me by suggesting that you read on. One of the largest urgent care operators in the country just saw a former manager get sentenced to …
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says it wants to stop paying hospital-based clinics more than they pay physician offices for the same level of care administered to Medicare patients. Calling it a “site-neutral plan for clinic visits,” CMS proposes lowering reimbursements for hospital outpatient departments to match what it pays on the physician fee schedule for clinic visits. According to figures released by CMS, right now Medicare pays roughly $116 for a visit …
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