Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Expert Perspectives on Grassroots Marketing in Urgent Care

Urgent message: Grassroots marketing tactics can be effective in engaging a center’s providers and staff with the communities they serve while also educating prospective patients about the availability of urgent care. Introduction This roundtable focuses on grassroots marketing for urgent care centers, which differs from traditional advertising in that it involves more interaction with prospective patients and requires a hands-on approach to building relationships and spurring word-of-mouth in the community. The panel of experts we’ve …

Developing Data: February, 2014

These data from the 2012 Urgent Care Industry Benchmarking Study are based on a sample of 1,732 urgent care centers; 95.2% of the respondents were UCA members. Among other criteria, the study was limited to centers that have a licensed provider onsite at all times; have two or more exam rooms; typically are open 7 days/week, 4 hours/day, at least 3,000 hours/year; and treat patients of all ages (unless specifically a pediatric urgent care).

Pulse Oximetry, Oral Medication

Q. I am reviewing documentation for a freestanding urgent care center that performs pulse oximetry on every patient they see, regardless of the reason. Is this typical? In some cases, they are billing the case rate code, S9083. Please let me know if this is standard operating procedure. A.Medicare will allow payment for pulse oximetry under two conditions: 1) when it is linked to an appropriate diagnosis code; and 2) if it considered as being …

Treating the Self-Harming Patient in the Urgent Care

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP He watched her walk through the door at the end of a long, busy day. She was an attractive, well dressed, athletic-looking young lady with a warm smile, the kind of girl he’d want his teenage son to date someday. “Slam dunk,” he thought. “This will be a quick visit and I’ll still get out on time.” The front office team registered her quickly. He suspected that they, too, …

Understanding the Freestanding Emergency Department Phenomenon

Urgent message: FSEDs have a role to play in our health care system but it’s not to supplant urgent care centers. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Introduction Freestanding emergency departments (FSEDs) are walk-in medical facilities—structurally separate and distinct from a hospital—that hold themselves out to provide emergency care to the general public. While they claim many similarities to hospital EDs—capabilities to diagnose and stabilize cardiac arrest, stroke symptoms, breathing problems and trauma—there are also …

Developing Data: January, 2014

ICD-10

Q. My staff keeps telling me that my documentation will have to change in order for them to properly choose an ICD-10 diagnosis code. Is that true? A. Documentation practices should not have to change but it will be helpful to understand the granularity of the new codes. There is greater specificity including laterality, temporal factors, contributing factors, symptoms, manifestations, and anatomic location. Thus, if you currently gloss over details in the medical record, you …

ObamaCare Update or Fear and Loathing: The Affordable Care Act

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In the conclusion of my October 2012 column on ObamaCare I wrote that no matter the outcome (of the presidential election) our future will not be boring. Fourteen months later, it has not been boring and we are just around the corner from imposing the individual mandate (aka tax penalty) on those who don’t have minimal insurance coverage. However, before we cross the starting line let’s review a bit …

Identifying Risks and Finding Shelter in an Urgent Care Compliance Program

Urgent message: The escalating pressure on the industry to decrease health care costs has resulted in an increase in audit activity from government and private payors for everything from billing and coding to HIPAA and kickbacks. Therefore, it’s more important than ever for urgent care centers to build a culture of compliance. DAMARIS L. MEDINA The health care industry is in the throes of a dynamic regulatory enforcement climate. Federal and state regulators and third-party …

Practice Management