Practice Management
The woods have been thick with mergers joining formerly disparate segments of the healthcare industry, with major drugstore chains and insurers being a prime example. The biggest headlines of that lot followed news of CVS’s plans to by Aetna. Nonetheless, one of CVS’s key competitors is sitting out this growing trend, at least for now. Instead, Walgreens Boots Alliance has chosen to stick closer to its core business by building a close relationship with Prime …
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On the surface, offering online check-in sounds like a can’t-miss proposition that combines the organization of an appointment-based practice with the convenience of a walk-in system. As with most innovations that purport to solve all your problems in a given area, however, this option is not risk-free for urgent care operators who want to drive up visits while offering a better experience for their patients. According to a new article published on LinkedIn by Alan …
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It isn’t enough for urgent care clinicians to be more judicious in prescribing opiates for patients in pain. A seamless approach to medication security also has to be in place in order to thwart crooked workers looking to make a quick buck on the backs of addicts in need of a fix. A case in southwest Florida is a painful reminder that anyone with access to addictive drugs could land your business in trouble and …
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Insurers, health systems, and state governments have cobbled together regulations on various aspects of prescriptions for opiates. The federal government is working on legislation aimed at curbing the opioid crisis, too. Walmart and Sam’s Club’s pharmacies aren’t waiting for new regulations to mandate the limits of opioid prescriptions, however. Instead, the parent company is imposing a limit of 7-days’ supply for patients who are prescribed opiates for acute, short-term pain. Those restrictions will start within …
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Western Connecticut Medical Group (WCMG) and American Family Care (AFC) have entered into a collaborative partnership to provide coordinated patient care—or, put more plainly, to increase the odds of retaining patients who visit AFC’s urgent care locations within a defined follow-up path. The two companies have structured their arrangement so AFC patients who need follow-up will have improved access to primary and specialty care practices within WCMG. Traffic will be two-way, too; WCMG patients who need …
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It would seem to be self-evident that your urgent care center needs to collect on all fees for care provided in order to stay in business. Whether by sloppy bookkeeping, honest mistakes, or well-intentioned attempts at “charity,” however, millions of dollars are going unclaimed for services rendered across the country, according to an editorial that appeared in the Chicago Tribune recently. The opinion piece, penned by the paper’s Editorial Board, goes so far as to …
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When is a free physical not free, but still a bargain? When the true cost is a donation—in any amount the patient chooses—to a charity for children. That’s the deal New England Urgent Care is offering at its West Hartford, CT location for the next couple of weeks. They’ll conduct physicals for children who need one before they can go to summer camp, waiving their normal fee in exchange for a donation of any amount …
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Despite vast improvements in the management of patient data thanks to the advent of electronic health records, too many people still have a hard time getting access to their own healthcare information, according to the Government Accountability Office. Under the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), this presents a problem for consumers and providers alike. HIPAA mandates that patients be able to receive a copy of their own medical …
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We’ve shared research showing that certain over-the-counter pain medications can be as effective as opioid medications for acute pain before. Now a study conducted by the School of Dental Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School offers new data indicating the same is true for dental pain. Researchers found that ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, either alone or in combination with acetaminophen, are actually more effective than opioids for many patients when it comes …
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Cases of hepatitis A—some of them fatal—continue to spread across the country, confounding local and federal health officials. Fourteen states (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) are the latest to report higher-than-average hep A activity. At least 1,200 cases have been reported nationwide since March 2017, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the outbreak; 40 of those patients died as …
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