Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Benefits of Adding Primary Care Services to Your Urgent Care

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC In the last few years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has accelerated its long-term effort to strengthen primary care as the foundation of the U.S. health system. Through new payment models, regulatory changes, and equity-driven initiatives, CMS aims to rebalance healthcare spending toward prevention, care coordination, and whole-person health. All these are areas historically underfunded compared to specialty or hospital care. Major policy changes have …

A United Vision for 2026: Strengthening Our Voice, Our Value, and Our Future

As we begin a new year, I’m struck by both the resilience of the Urgent Care community and the urgency of the moment we’re in. Over the past several months, through conversations with operators, clinicians, vendors, and other partners, one message has been unmistakably clear: Urgent Care is ready to move forward together with renewed purpose, a stronger voice, and a sharper vision for the future. 2026 will be a pivotal year. The pressures facing …

Billing Integrity in Urgent Care: How to Manage Risk

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC, is Revenue Integrity Manager at Experity. The financial and reputational health of an urgent care practice depends on one simple principle: Bill accurately and compliantly. Yet as reimbursement rules evolve and staffing models shift toward greater reliance on non-physician practitioners (NPPs), many centers find themselves at risk for costly missteps. From billing under the wrong provider to out-of-network (OON) complications and False Claims Act (FCA) violations, administrators are …

Urgent Care Testing For Chlamydia and Gonorrhea

About three-quarters of urgent care centers test for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae (CT/NG) infections either in-house or by sending out, but utilization lags. Here’s why it matters. An Urgent Care Consultants analysis of 90,856,421 visits charted in the Experity EMR (January 1, 2022–September 13, 2025) shows adoption has broadened since the previous analysis.1 Across visits in all clinics, only about 1% included a CT/NG test, while the top-decile clinics test in roughly 4–5% of …

The Power of Data in Telling Urgent Care’s Story

As we close out 2025, I find myself reflecting on a year defined by both challenge and progress. It’s been a year of reconnection—of reestablishing relationships, realigning priorities, and recommitting to what makes Urgent Care such an essential part of healthcare. Whether through chapter conferences, advocacy meetings, or direct conversations with our members, one message continues to ring true: our collective story has never been more important to tell, and data is one of the …

Sick of Sick Notes

Adrienne Freese, RN, BSN, is a charge nurse at Denver Health’s Peña Urgent Care in Denver, Colorado. For a patient, what’s worse than having a violent case of diarrhea? Obtaining an employer-required sick note proving said diarrhea. Do we, as healthcare workers, watch our patients on the toilet for evidence of diarrhea? Thankfully we don’t. Unlike our patients’ employers, we take our patients’ word for it. A sick note may seem like a benign issue, …

The Case for a Generative AI Acceptable Use Policy in Urgent Care

Urgent Message: Banning generative artificial intelligence can create a culture of secretive use that presents potential risks for legal liability, clinical harm, and degradation of reputation. Key Words: Generative Artificial Intelligence; Protected Health Information; HIPAA; Clinical Decision-Making Across urgent care centers, many clinicians are experimenting with generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The trend is measurable, not anecdotal. The American Medical Association reports that 2 in 3 physicians used AI in 2024—a stunning rise from 38% …

What Does ‘Standard of Care’ Mean from a Legal Compliance Perspective?

Urgent Message: Urgent care centers are not required to deliver the “best possible care” but rather an “acceptable” level of care, which is legally defined as the “standard of care.” Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Key Words: Standard of Care, Medical Malpractice, Medical Negligence, Legal Compliance, Disciplinary Action Medical malpractice occurs when a physician’s actions, or failure to act, during patient care don’t meet accepted medical standards and cause harm to the patient. To be …

Mastering Revenue Cycle Management

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC Revenue cycle management (RCM) may not be the most glamorous part of urgent care, but it is one of the most critical. A clinic can provide excellent patient care, yet still struggle to keep its doors open if its billing processes falter. Too often, urgent care leaders rely on assumptions, outdated practices, or incomplete data that lead to financial surprises and lost revenue. Running an effective Revenue Cycle …

The Scale of Orthopedic Urgent Care

As of August 12, 2025, there are 726 orthopedic urgent care (OUC) rooftops in the United States, according to National Urgent Care Realty and Urgent Care Consultants. Based on centers added since January 1, 2025, the estimated annual rooftop growth for 2025 is 10.9%. The charts highlight the market’s structure: Most sites operate without hospital affiliation, and OUC is largely a scaled, multisite business rather than single-location clinics. Only 9% of OUC rooftops are single …

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