Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

There Are Few Consequences for Patients Who Owe You Money. How Can You Protect Yourself?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has instituted policies wherein outstanding medical debt under $500 is no longer reportable to credit reporting companies like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. While that may offer some degree of protection to healthcare consumers who have been billed exorbitant charges by freestanding emergency rooms and other facilities infamous for hitting patients with “hidden” charges, it takes away one more incentive for deadbeats to make good on their obligations—and urgent care operators …

Years After Infection, Patients Are Grappling with New COVID-Related Disability. Be Vigilant

As long as 2 years after recovering from COVID-19, some patients who were healthy before becoming infected now experience blood clots, diabetes, neurological complications, fatigue, and mental health issues thought to be related to the virus. The authors of research published in the journal Nature measured disability adjusted life years (DALY) in patients who had recovered from COVID-19 or developed long COVID, with each DALY unit reflecting 1 year of healthy life lost due to …

Patients Are More Likely to Trust ‘Independent’ Practices—and the Reason Is Interesting

It’s well-established that patients value urgent care because it’s typically much more expedient than the emergency room, and certainly primary care practices. Proximity and savvy marketing may help you differentiate yourself from competitors who offer those same advantages, but are there even more basic considerations that draw patients to one locations vs another? New data released by Software Advice suggest that patients who choose independent healthcare practices vs those owned by large corporations do so …

New Regimens, Similar Conclusions for PrEP. Do They Change Anything for Urgent Care?

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reported 4 years ago that oral preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduced the likelihood of HIV infection in adults at increased risk for infection. At the time, offering PrEP in urgent care was a controversial prospect; while there was little debate as to the public health benefits, some UC operators found the complex side-effects profile daunting for a setting largely dedicated to episodic care. Now a meta-analysis of newer PrEP regimens …

AP’s—Not to Be Confused with PA’s—Present Legal and Coding Challenges for Urgent Care Operators

The challenges of staffing rural urgent care centers has spurred some operators to get creative in order to meet patient demand. The question is, are some getting a little too creative in billing for their services? These murky waters have led to two individuals—an urgent care physician-owner and his office manager—being charged with healthcare fraud in Missouri. The United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri alleges that the pair “conspired to make false statements …

A Small Sample, but Interesting Answers: ‘Emergency Room, Urgent Care, or Virtual Care?’

Educating the public on the benefits of urgent care vs the emergency room and other settings is a central challenge in the urgent care industry. This is especially true when it comes to getting through to patients who will at some point experience quintessential urgent care-worthy symptoms like cough, sore throat, and eye infection. The results of a recent poll that Cigna posted on LinkedIn, asking Where should you go for care if you are …

Is Getting a Tank Full of Gas and a Strep Test in the Same Place a Good Thing? Maybe So

A few months ago, JUCM News told you about QuikTrip’s rollout of urgent care centers (branded under the name MedWise) leveraging the real estate, marketing, and branding expertise of its gas stations. Apparently word is getting out, as an article on the initiative published by KFF Health News recently has been picked up by USA Today and various metropolitan newspapers around the country. Urgent Care Association CEO and regular JUCM contributor Lou Ellen Horwitz is quoted extensively throughout the piece—confessing that she was skeptical about QuikTrip’s plans …

Don’t Jump to Conclusions If That BP Reading Seems Off; You Might Want to Check the Equipment

It’s not unusual for patients presenting to urgent care to have elevated blood pressure that doesn’t necessarily indicate that they have hypertension. Even extreme blood pressure may not mean the patient needs to be dispatched to the emergency room. There are any number of possible explanations for high BP reading besides “hypertension” in urgent care patients—pain, anxiety, and stimulant use being just a few. An article just published in JAMA Internal Medicine highlights another possible …

With COVID ‘Season’ Approaching, Don’t Let Sloppy Coding Put You in Jeopardy

While it may be premature to call the upcoming months “COVID season,” it’s a fact that case and hospitalization rates are starting to climb in multiple U.S. states. As such, it’s a good time to reconsider the importance of keeping your coding on point. The consequences of getting it wrong could result in underpayment—clearly not good for any business—but the consequences could be far worse if improper coding results in patients and payers being billed …

Hiring a New Provider or Urgent Care Manager? You’re Going to Need a Lot of Patience

Whether due to a scarcity of candidates or hoops those candidates and their prospective employers have to jump through in order to meet state regulations, it takes a long time to bring a new healthcare provider on board. In fact, according to an article newly published by Becker’s Hospital Review, only employers in consulting, finance, and engineering have to look longer than the 59.5 days (median) it takes to hire a new provider. Bringing a …

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