Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Quality Improvement Report: Improving Telephone Follow-Up in an Urgent Care Setting

Urgent message: Follow-up after a patient visit is essential to the continuum of care and to the perception of customer service. Especially in the urgent care setting, where providers may have no ongoing relationship with a patient, the most basic office practices (eg, collecting accurate and accessible contact information) can seem deceptively simple but are of critical importance. Jimmie Toler, MSN, NP-C, Emily E. Johnson, PhD, and Barbara J. Edlund, PhD, ANP, BC Introduction Continuum …

UCA Files Comments on Medicare QPP

The Urgent Care Association vowed to represent the industry’s interests when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) last October. In effect, CMS imposed guidelines for clinicians participating in Medicare’s Quality Payment Program (QPP), and defined two possible pathways: the Merit-Based Payment Incentive Program (MIPS) or the Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs). UCA made good on its promise this week by …

Urgent Care Growth is a Good News/Bad News Scenario for Hospitals

Health system administrators and fans of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) have been lauding the fact that employment in the healthcare industry has been climbing since the ACA was implemented. While that may be factually correct in terms of overall numbers, it is also true that health systems have been cutting jobs strategically in order to cut payroll expenses. Not too long ago, Becker’s Hospital Review identified 48 layoffs that have taken place …

Watch Out for Shady Allergy Testing—and Billing—Schemes

Medically necessary is hard to define to universal approval, with insurers and healthcare professionals often being on opposite sides. Some shady service providers are looking for ways to exploit that divide for their own profit, sometimes leaving urgent care operators at risk for penalties, potentially. Right now, some allergy companies “offer” to help practices initiate allergy testing and immunotherapy services; the company places an employee on site to handle the allergy tests and facilitate immunotherapy—in …

Report: Nonemergent ED Visits Cost Tennessee Nearly $85 million a Year

Medicaid recipients who go to Tennessee emergency rooms with nonemergent complaints cost the state nearly $85 million a year, according to a report published online by WATE television in Knoxville. The data show federally and state-funded nonemergent ED visits drove up costs 25% in 2016 compared with the previous year. Some of the most common complaints that could have been treated in a lower-acuity (and less costly) setting like urgent care included acute upper respiratory …

New Urgent Care Models Help Cancer Patients

Urgent message: As the population ages, the healthcare system will be faced with a growing number of cancer patients who have unique care needs. Since typical hospital EDs are rarely equipped to capably and cost-effectively service cancer patients who present with timely medical issues, there remains a growing need for additional cancer-focused urgent care resources—an opportunity that urgent care operators and health systems would do well to capitalize on. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is …

Follow-up: AMA Cries Foul over New Anthem ED Policy

We’ve told you recently about plans some insurers have to stick patients with the bill for emergency room visits that are retrospectively determined to have been nonemergent in nature. In essence, if patients go to the ED with an illness or injury that could have been handled in a lower-acuity setting (such as an urgent care center), as determined by the insurer, the patient’s claim will be denied. Now the American Medical Association is demanding …

Ensure Patient Safety—and Minimize Liability Risk—in Every Encounter

A situation brewing in Nebraska should serve as a cautionary tale for ensuring patients are safe at all times—and minimizing liability risk for all urgent care operators. A physician in Lincoln, NE has been accused of carrying out unnecessary, invasive physical exams of a female recruit to the Nebraska State Patrol. A state senator there plans to submit a formal complaint to state regulators and medical associations against the provider, after a female trooper filed …

Eclipse Tourism Sparks Urgent Care Staffing Changes

Citizens from coast to coast will have a rare opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse on August 21. States directly in its 70-mile-wide path—Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina—are bracing for a massive influx of sky watchers intent on witnessing the phenomenon. Urgent care centers are shoring up their staffing in response. For example, Oregon’s St. Charles Health System is bringing in extra staff from …

Hospital Systems Make Their Urgent Care Presence Known Around Town

Urgent care operators have been making a splash by revamping existing retail spaces and restaurants into urgent care centers. Now hospital systems seeking to make inroads in the industry are doing the same. Around Indiana, for example, Indiana University Health is opening up centers in old bank branches; Community Health Network is setting up shop in a strip mall; and Franciscan ExpressCare is actually clearing some space for a clinic in an apartment-and-retail complex, hoping …

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