Smart Technology Allows Tech Firms to Jump into Healthcare—for Better or Worse(?)

Smart Technology Allows Tech Firms to Jump into Healthcare—for Better or Worse(?)

We look at the advent of smart technology as a window to closer contact with patients and more efficient, secure communication among providers and various healthcare stakeholders. It also opens a door for technology companies with no history in healthcare to suddenly become major disruptors. While it’s too soon to know whether that would be a good or bad thing for patients, there’s no question it makes some cogs in the supply chain nervous. If …

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Lines Between Market Segments Continue to Blur as Cigna Plans to Buy Express Scripts

Lines Between Market Segments Continue to Blur as Cigna Plans to Buy Express Scripts

It’s too late to be truly unprecedented, but Cigna’s announcement that it plans to buy Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit management company in the U.S., signals that lines between “traditional” segments of the healthcare industry will continue to be breached for the foreseeable future. Once the deal is done, the combined company will reside in Cigna’s Connecticut headquarters, headed by Cigna CEO David Cordani. The Express Scripts unit will still be based in St. …

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Research Report: Consumer-Centric Healthcare Favors Urgent Care

Research Report: Consumer-Centric Healthcare Favors Urgent Care

A trend toward high-deductible health plans and new technologies that ease access are pushing consumers to demand more from healthcare encounters, according to a new research report from CBInsights. This is evidenced by the growing popularity of “wearable” health-tracking devices and telemedicine services, but also in the number of patients who continue to flock to urgent care centers, according to the report. That, in turn, makes the industry attractive to private-equity investors, who “see opportunities …

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Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase Circle the Wagons to Cut Healthcare Costs

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase Circle the Wagons to Cut Healthcare Costs

Three gigantic—and extremely wealthy—corporations are joining forces to try to lower what their leadership considers to be exorbitant healthcare costs. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase say they’re forming an “independent healthcare company” specifically for their employees—more than a million people, though not all are in the U.S. The new entity will focus on technological solutions to lower costs, simplify coverage, and increase transparency in employee healthcare. Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet says the triumvirate “does …

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How Patients Find a Healthcare Professional

Every business—universally, in every field—survives on its ability to draw the right customers. For healthcare professionals, that means patients. In this age of on-demand service and walk-in appointments, more than at any other time, providers are also called upon to be astute marketers who know how to help patients find them when they need care. Making the effort doesn’t always assure success, however. So, it may be helpful to know that there are new, independent …

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New Urgent Care Center Focuses on Dentistry for the Uninsured

New Urgent Care Center Focuses on Dentistry for the Uninsured

Recognizing a need in the community and a chance to get an established patient base, the A.T. Still University-Missouri School of Dentistry and Oral Health (ATSU) is partnering with Affinia Healthcare on an urgent care clinic for uninsured people with dental problems. As with more traditional urgent care operators, the idea of the Centene Charitable Foundation Urgent Dental Care Center is to eliminate waiting periods for patients in need, but also to discourage people from …

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HCA Targets Central Florida for Urgent Care Growth

HCA Targets Central Florida for Urgent Care Growth

HCA Healthcare is investing more resources in its urgent care business in central Florida, with plans to open four new centers, as well as three new freestanding emergency rooms, by the end of 2018. The company says it’s a sound move based on data indicating residents of Orange County and Seminole County don’t have sufficient access to primary care, including walk-in care. CareNow, HCA’s urgent care brand, already operates one location in Winter Springs in …

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Cultivating Change in the Workplace

Cultivating Change in the Workplace

Urgent message: The strength of an urgent care operation ultimately lies in its people; for any change initiative to be successful, your center’s staff has to be prepared and willing to embrace change. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and is Practice Management Editor for The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. In the workplace, as in life, the only real constant is change. And nowhere is …

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More Data Quantify ED Visits That Could Be Avoided

More Data Quantify ED Visits That Could Be Avoided

Nonbiased parties outside of the urgent care arena are picking up on the idea that many people who visit the emergency room don’t really need to be there—and there are more data demonstrating that all the time. Most recently, the International Journal for Quality in Health Care published research stating that 3.3% of ED visits are “avoidable” altogether.  The data reflect more than 424 million ED visits by patients between 18 and 64 years of …

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The Life Cycle of Urgent Care Acquisitions

The Life Cycle of Urgent Care Acquisitions

Urgent message: Urgent care’s success in delivering a retail healthcare experience has attracted the attention of private equity and hospital investors; understanding the deal timeline is an essential first step for an urgent care operator interested in buying or selling a business. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Introduction Urgent care centers are popular among …

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