Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

ASD Services Fit With Existing UC Business Models

Urgent Message: Rapid growth in the autism spectrum disorder services (ASD) sector may present an expansion opportunity for urgent care operators who take the initiative to develop the necessary infrastructure. Citation: Ayers A. ASD Services Fit With Existing UC Business Models, J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 19 (1): 33-36 As the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to rise—now affecting 1 in 36 children in the United States—demand for accessible services is greater than …

ICD-10-CM: What’s New for 2025

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC We are heading into fall, and fall starts with updates to the ICD-10-CM codes. The most recent changes went into effect on October 1, 2024. There is no grace period. Because ICD-10-CM codes are date-specific, claims prior to date of service October 1, 2024, need to use the codes for that time period, switching over to the update on the exact day. While ICD-10-CM codes are updated semi-annually, …

Practical Advice for Clinicians on Interfacing with Social Media

Did you know the average person spends over 2 hours on social media every day?[1] While it’s clear that social media is here to stay, the impacts of social media trends on clinicians and patients alike is probably less apparent to you—but it is undoubtedly the reality we face. Today, 8 in 10 internet users search for health information online,[2] and 74% of these people use social media.[3] Perhaps more surprisingly, in a 2023 survey, …

Few Misused Rx Drugs Prescribed in Urgent Care

According to the United States Department of Justice, the most common prescription drugs that are misused fall into 1 of 3 categories: opioid pain relievers/narcotics; depressants; and stimulants. Experity EMR data encapsulating 17,526,083 prescriptions written at 3,037 urgent care centers from January 1 to August 20, 2024, shows the vast majority of urgent care centers do not prescribe these medications at all, and of those that do, these medications represent a very small percentage of …

Mistaken Identity

For as long as I can remember, Urgent Care has defined itself in the context of something else. We’re “more than primary care but less than emergency,” and “we’re like those drugstore clinics but we can do a lot more.” Or “we fill a gap in on-demand access.” I guess that is necessary when you are new and small and unknown. The problem with this kind of definition is that it’s so other-dependent. The way …

Guardrails for Nonsufficient Funds and Credit Card on File Fees

Urgent Message: Urgent care operators must navigate emerging federal, state, and payer regulations when developing financial policies that require payment by credit card and when setting fees for bounced checks and denied credit card charges. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Citation: Ayers A. Guardrails for Nonsufficient Funds and Credit Card on File Fees. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18 (11): 41-43 Urgent care centers frequently charge a nonsufficient funds (NSF) fee when a patient’s check …

When An Urgent Care Contracts as Primary Care

Over the past 2 decades, urgent care has been on the forefront of consumerism. Increasingly, healthcare consumers are realizing how much they are contributing to the cost of healthcare delivery through taxes and payroll premium deductions, and therefore, they’re more motivated than ever to attain the full value of the benefits they’ve paid for. Urgent care has remained focused on the consumers’ sense of value by appealing directly to patients as clinics market their convenient …

Strategic Planning

Before I jump into this column, I want to mention our recent Advocacy victory: getting a mention of Urgent Care into the Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services publication of the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. If you want more details on why this is a big deal, you can listen to the 2 interviews I did with Eric Zimmerman (our lobbyist team leader) on the Urgent Care Leadership Podcast (found anywhere you get your …

Expecting the Unexpected: Emergency Preparedness in the Urgent Care Setting

Lyndsie Watkins, PA-C, FCUCM Lyndsie Watkins, PA-C, FCUCM, is lead PA for Northwell Health GoHealth Urgent Care East Region, a director of its fellowship program, and co-director of the GoPrepare emergency preparedness programing. Picture this: It’s a busy day in your urgent care (UC). You’re moving along steadily, seeing patients back-to-back. Unexpectedly, there is a commotion as a woman is brought in from the neighborhood right in front of the building. She appears unconscious, and …

NPS Predicts Success in UC

The net promoter score (NPS) is a customer experience metric devised by business researcher Fred Reichheld, MBA, which measures how likely customers are to recommend a product or service on a scale of 0-10. His 2006 book, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth, describes NPS as the most predictive metric of a company’s future success. As a benchmark, NPS scores are reported on the world’s leading brands. A review of more than …

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