Practice Management
If fresh data revealed in a new white paper from FAIR Health are any indication, patients and payers are really getting the message that urgent care is often the best alternative for immediate healthcare needs. From 2016 to 2017, overall utilization of urgent care centers grew 14%, double the increase in usage of retail clinics (7%) and sevenfold more than the growth in use of emergency rooms (2%). Retail did outpace urgent care in a …
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Provider burnout has been the subject of much consternation—and resultant coverage in the medical media, including JUCM (see Provider Burnout Is Real; Show Compassion for Yourself, or Recognizing and Preventing Provider Burnout in Urgent Care in our archive.) Burnout may not be the most accurate or helpful way to describe symptoms like increased apathy toward work, a pervading sense of boredom and stagnation, irritability, and a shortened attention span, however. As detailed in a new …
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JUCM, The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine was honored in two categories in the 2019 awards competition by the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors (ASHPE)—the 16th and 17th times the journal has won a prize in the prestigious national competition. A Pregnant Mother Presenting to Urgent Care with Chickenpox, by Samrana Arefeen, MD and Khalid Aziz, MD garnered a Silver Award in the Best Case History Category. It was published in our December 2018 …
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An urgent care company has agreed to pay $2 million to settle whistleblower allegations that it submitted inflated claims to Medicare and Medicaid programs—known as “upcoding”—over a 5-year period in two New England states. Specifically, the Department of Justice charged that the company ordered its clinicians to examine and document multiple, specific body systems while taking the medical histories and performing physical exams, whether that level of attention was warranted by the patients’ complaints or …
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As we told you in January, new data from the National Safety Council (NSC) revealed that the odds of dying from an unintentional opioid overdose are now greater than those of being killed in a motor vehicle accident. Drug poisoning is the leading cause of unintentional death overall in the U.S. The implications of this go beyond the obvious for clinicians who are called upon to treat patients who present with acute pain related to …
Read MoreQ: During a recent internal audit of claims where x-rays were being billed, it was brought to my attention that we were not using the appropriate modifiers since we use computed radiography (CR) x-ray machines. What are those modifiers and will using them affect my reimbursement? A: As outlined in the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) imposed reimbursement cuts to the technical component for x-rays performed on …
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Urgent message: Familiarity with the schedule for immunization against pertussis, as well as expertise in diagnosing and prescribing treatment, should be within the urgent care provider’s capabilities—as should the ability to distinguish which patients require transfer to a higher-acuity setting. Ellen Laves, MD Microbiology and Immunity Pertussis is a toxin-mediated disease caused by the gram-negative coccobacillus Bordetella pertussis. Toxins produced by B pertussis impair ciliary clearance of pulmonary secretions through the paralysis of normally …
Read MoreUrgent message: The increasingly visibility of “whistleblower cases,” in which employees share in any fines from reporting their employer’s malfeasance to federal and state authorities, calls for urgent care center owners to understand the False Claims Act and the whistleblower lawsuit process. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. A “whistleblower” is an employee who makes complaints …
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Urgent message: Lung cancer—the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States—may first present with relatively benign symptoms and findings, such as those seen in urgent care. A pulmonary nodule may be the first manifestation of lung cancer in tobacco users. Early diagnosis and intervention, as well as ensuring a patient has appropriate and timely access to follow-up, is a critical measure in decreasing mortality. Introduction Lung cancer is the second most common …
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Case The patients is a 57-year-old man with a complaint of syncope 3 hours before arrival. He states he was sitting on the couch and the next thing he knew he was waking up. No preceding dizziness. No seizure activity, biting of the tongue, blood in the mouth, or post ictal symptoms. No cp, sob, leg pain, head pain, or back pain. He drank 2 glasses of water and felt better, but was encouraged to …
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