Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Payer Stats Reveal Urgent Care Utilization Up 207%

The share of the procedures provided in urgent care (UC) centers submitted on commercial insurance claims grew 207% from 2013 to 2022, according to an in-depth index report from nonprofit claims-data analysis organization FAIR Health. Teasing out single-year growth, utilization of urgent care centers increased 43% from 2021 to 2022. Growth of these “claim lines”—essentially individual procedures listed on insurance claims—echoes the robust growth in the number of urgent care clinics serving the nation overall, …

Urgent Care De Novo Growth by Operator Size, 2022-2023

A compilation of 2022 and 2023 de novo urgent care center data shows a 7% decline in new locations: from 1,651 de novo centers in 2022 to 1,540 in 2023. A “de novo” center is a new urgent care location where services were not offered previously. The unit of measure is the physical site, meaning if an existing location already in operation happened to change ownership, such change is not counted as de novo growth. …

Baptist Memorial JV Opens 10 Centers

Baptist Memorial Health Care recently announced the opening of 10 new urgent care (UC) centers in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas under the Baptist Urgent Care flag. The UC organization is a joint venture partnership between Baptist Memorial Health Care and the Urgent Team Family of Urgent Care & Walk-In Centers. According to a press release, the centers are accredited by the Urgent Care Association. Urgent Team operates 85 total centers offering urgent care, primary care, occupational, specialty …

Are You Chasing Profitable Growth, or Just Growth?

Heather Real With today’s urgent care operators challenged with increasing expenses and stagnant reimbursements, many thoughtful entrepreneurs turn to ancillary services to drive more revenue into their business. These offerings are numerous and varying in nature. When determining if and what to add to an urgent care business, you’ll need to ask some crucial questions: As the competition for patient loyalty heats up, many operators are looking for ways to stand out. Some ways of …

Urgent Care Drives Growth in Health Systems

Dissatisfied patients who have flocked to urgent care rather than more traditional care locations are forcing health systems and clinics to reevaluate how they offer care, according to a new report in Becker’s Hospital Review. “Regardless of the clinical enterprise’s desire to connect everyone with a long-term physician relationship, responsive health systems will recognize they cannot form relationships through experiences that leave individuals unsatisfied. These relationships are particularly important at the individual’s first point of …

Urgent Care Growth Will Continue, Says New Research

Urgent care is a good fit for evolving healthcare marketplaces, ensuring continuing growth for years to come—from $23.5 billion in 2013 to a projected $30.5 billion by 2020, according to a new report from Transparency Market Research (TMR). We’ve told you here that urgent care has been shown to be a popular model for people in the millennial generation (often defined as those born between the mid-1980s and early 2000s), but TMR points out that …

New Analysis Predicts Urgent Care Will Grow 30% by 2020

Increasing healthcare spending and an aging population are expected to boost demand for cost-effective, convenient medical care—adding up to strong growth in the urgent care marketplace for the remainder of the decade, according to a new report from Market Research Search Engine (MRRSE). The company’s conclusions are based on in-depth interviews with key opinion leaders within urgent care, but also on extensive secondary research. The report describes the industry as “highly fragmented,” with “small players” …

Emory Adds 20 Urgent Care Locations Through New Partnerships

Emory Healthcare has found the urgent care marketplace hospitable and is taking on new partners to secure a more prominent seat at the table. The Atlanta-based company is inviting Peachtree Immediate Care and SmartCare Urgent Care into its Emory Health Network. Once Peachtree’s 16 locations and SmartCare’s four clinics are fully on board, Emory will be able to offer urgent care at 60 locations throughout Atlanta. The locations will share an EMR to facilitate smooth …

Health Data Management IDs 30 Largest Urgent Care Chains

Urgent care watchers know the industry has been growing at a steady clip for years, with the latest surge fueled by patients and payers eager to get quality care for a fraction of the price of a trip to the emergency room. Some urgent care operators focus more on growth than others, of course. Health Data Management and Merchant Medicine teamed up to identify just which 30 urgent care chains have grown to be the …

When Urgent Care Grows, Patients Benefit

More and more communities—big and small, urban and suburban—are seeing their choices for immediate medical care multiply at a rapid pace, thanks largely to the continued growth of urgent care centers. While that level of competition helps ensure that all the players in the market bring their A game to every encounter, the sheer number of options bolsters one of the key benefits that brings patients to urgent care in the first place: when there …

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