Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Company Has to Pay $1.8 Million After Firing a Worker for Taking Prescribed Meds

These are complicated times for urgent care operators who offer occupational medicine services like employee drug screens. The opioid crisis across the country muddies the waters even more, as state laws and medical practice guidelines seek to inhibit the use of opioid pain medications in order to stem increases in addiction and related deaths. Many employers are following suit, but be mindful that even well-intentioned drug testing programs can have severe consequences—for the company. Most …

Cigna Moves to Keep Members Away from Urgent Care

Cigna is collaborating with CVS Health to push members into retail clinics instead of visiting urgent care centers when they have immediate, nonemergent medical needs. The company claims that around 45% of urgent care visits could be handled in drugstore clinics—at a savings of 81% per visit for Cigna. The problem? Cigna’s data highlight the minority of patients seeking care. The majority (55%) could not be treated sufficiently in the retail setting, meaning they’d end …

Outreach is Key in Attracting New Patients

Announcing that the high school football season is a month and a half away isn’t likely to draw much attention. However, noting that scholastic athletes will have to get their physicals done early in anticipation of practice starting—especially if you run an urgent care centers that’s offering a discount on preseason check-ups—could increase a center’s visibility and even draw in patients who may have never visited before. Sisters of Mercy Urgent Care, in North Carolina, …

UnitedHealth Sees Growth After Exiting ACA Markets

UnitedHealth Group Inc. was very open in its claims that it was impossible to sustain the economics of participating in healthcare exchanges under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”)—and thus the company would stop participating. It made good on that vow, and has now reported profit growth in the second quarter and raised its projections for the year, fueled by its Optum health-services arm. The largest insurer in the U.S. UnitedHealth has almost completely …

New CDC Data Cover the Urgent Care ‘Explosion’ Years

The 40th annual report on the state of the health of Americans from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides insights on the impact of changes in the healthcare landscape, including the years that saw urgent care grow from the “doc in a box” (in the public’s perception, anyway) to the sophisticated, integral part of the healthcare system that it is recognized as today. The CDC’s Health, United States, 2016 reports on long-term trends …

Stress Hydration—and Urgent Care Services—This Summer

We see lots of public service announcements and signs every summer warning against the dangers of locking pets in hot cars. Less publicized are the everyday dangers of people sweating profusely in extreme heat without drinking enough water. Providence Urgent Care noted that with an advisory to residents around its locations, and garnered media attention in the Spokane, WA area in the process. Revealing that they see patients with symptoms of dehydration much more frequently …

E/M Coding Could Be Heading for an Overhaul

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says providers have been clamoring for an update of the 1995 and 1997 guidelines for evaluation-and-management (E/M) codes—and it may be ready to oblige them. If it goes forward, the plan would take years to implement and focus mainly on revising the history and physical exam portion of a patient encounter. The aim, according to CMS, would be to simplify and better align E/M coding and documentation, presuming …

CMS May Cut Payments for Off-Campus Hospital Visits by Half

Hospital-owned urgent care centers—many of which became “hospital-owned” thanks to a relatively generous 50% reimbursement rate for off-campus patient visits—may be taking a substantial hit if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services follows through on a plan to cut that rate by half. Hospital administrators say even though running off-campus clinics increases their operating budgets, they enable health systems to offer more patients access to cost-effective care. On the other hand, the Trump administration …

American Family Care Lands Billion-Dollar Investment Deal

Urgent care operator American Family Care (AFC) has inked an investment deal worth $1 billion with the private equity and real estate firm American Development Partners. The funds will be put to work expanding AFC’s presence around the country, with the expectation that 300 more franchises will open under the AFC banner (currently, there are 170). AFC is quick to note that the company will not change hands, and that it will continue to invest …

Is Retail the Place for Employee Drug Screens and Other Occ Med Testing?

MinuteClinic has made its name by giving customers shots and offering immediate care for low-acuity infections (ie, those for which prescriptions can be dispensed within the store). Now, however, it has announced a plan to partner with Alere eScreen to provide occupational medicine-type services for employers—most notably, including drug screens. The plan is to contract with companies who will send their workers to the CVS-operated clinics for biometric screenings, vaccinations, and Department of Transportation physicals, …