Practice Management
With a storm of protest from state workers still ringing in their ears, North Carolina legislators have backed off a plan to eliminate traditional “80/20” insurance (in which plan members pay 20% of healthcare costs until their deductible is met). Instead, they’ll incentivize preventive care by lowering copays for routine medical visits and some prescription drugs in 2017. That could mean higher traffic in primary care practices—and even longer waits to see PCPs in a …
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No longer satisfied with revealing states in which it plans to stop offering insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) a few at a time, UnitedHealth Group has acknowledged it will drop out of all but a “handful” of states by the end of this year. Right now, it participates in exchanges in 34 states; the dawn of 2017 will see it offering health coverage in just 12, as now planned. The market …
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Wall Street analysts have predicted that Optum would add 25 to 30 urgent care centers per year through acquisition and startups, but on a recent call with analysts the company predicted it would grow at a quicker pace on its way to operating clinics in 75 markets. A key step in that strategy, as we reported, was buying MedExpress for the urgent care centers it operates in 14 states. Optum still says those locations will …
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Patients who don’t need to be visiting the emergency room at all are too often not only evaluated, but admitted into the hospital through the ED. Some even wind up in critical care units, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. While some patients may be heading to the ED because they’re unsure of the most appropriate setting for their symptoms, others claim lack of access to primary care as the main …
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The growing ranks of older U.S. citizens and the Affordable Care Act (APA, or “Obamacare”) add up to a need for more and more physicians as time goes by, but a new study says the number of qualified physicians is not keeping pace. The research from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) points to shortages among specialties, in particular. The portion of the U.S. population over the age of 65 is expected to grow …
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One urgent care center’s competition is another center’s opportunity. In this case, Lexington, SC-based Doctor’s Care is finding that telemedicine is increasing patient satisfaction and reducing wait times, not keeping potential customers away from its clinics. The key is that the company facilitates the virtual visits on both ends: If one center is unusually busy and another has no wait time, the patient who is already on site at location A has the option of …
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An influx of newly insured patients is just one reason emergency room traffic continues to go up in the age of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”), according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lack of access to primary care providers in general is especially problematic among Medicaid patients; often, they find access to be untimely, at a median wait time of 2 weeks for an appointment—if a conveniently …
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Just a week after revealing it will no longer participate in Affordable Care Act plans in Arkansas and Georgia, UnitedHealth Group says it is bowing out of Michigan plans backed by the ACA (or “Obamacare”), as well. The company, which started warning that low profitability associated with ACA exchanges made doing business through them untenable months ago, will cease to carry such plans in the three states at the end of this year. Anyone currently …
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Hybrid health provider SSM Health Medical Group, which does business in the urgent care, hospital, primary care, and retail arenas, has signed an agreement to take over operation of 27 retail clinics housed in Walgreens drugstores in the St. Louis area. When the transition is complete next fall, the locations will be renamed SSM Health Express Clinic at Walgreens. Until then, it will be business as usual for those walk-in locations. Walgreens and SSM Health …
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An outbreak of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Vancouver, WA—in which four times the number of cases reported in a typical year have been reported—appears to be related to an outbreak of Zika virus in the area, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC notes that Brazil, in which the mosquito that carries Zika is found in great numbers, also saw an increase in cases of Guillain-Barre following a spike in Zika infections. …
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