Practice Management
For every independent urgent care operator who claims facility fees give them a competitive edge over their health system counterparts, there’s a hospital-based numbers cruncher licking his lips over the revenue those fees provide. Either way, with more and more hospitals bringing single-location or small-group operations into the fold, patients may start to wonder why the same care provided by the same providers in the same location no longer costs the same. If you’re a …
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It won’t be long before providers will be pitching much-needed flu vaccinations to the patients coming through your front door. Their advice might ring truer if they themselves have had a flu shot, of course. Whether due to a false sense of invincibility or stubbornness, some clinicians defy all logic—and pleading by their employers—and just don’t get vaccinated. In the 2015–16 flu season, in fact, only 79% of healthcare workers got flu shots, according to …
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Last week we told you about a serious uptick in cases of West Nile virus across the country. Now health officials from coast to coast are warning that cases of measles are on the rise. Twenty-one states have reported 118 cases, to date, this year—a pace that would result in the highest number of cases in 3 years if it continues, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It may be beneficial to …
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Mosquitoes just love wet weather. Unfortunately, that includes pests carrying the West Nile virus—leading to a surge in reported cases in 40 states. Whether it’s by helping to prevent its spread or being there to treat patients who may be affected, it’s a good time to prepare yourself. American Family Care opted for the former course of action by offering free prevention kits, aimed at helping residents in their surrounding communities avoid mosquito bites in …
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A new survey by Bankrate reveals that 22% of people in the United States have skipped medical care, or have a close family member who has opted not to get medical care in the past year because they felt they couldn’t afford it. Of those, 29% got their insurance in the individual marketplace (eg, Affordable Care Act exchanges), while 22% were covered by employee health plans. Even those who are confident they can afford their …
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The American Academy of Pediatrics has already decided that immunizing children with nasal spray just won’t cut it next flu season, again issuing a recommendation to use injectable flu vaccine instead. The AAP Board of Directors made the call after reviewing data on the effectiveness of this season’s flu shot compared with the nasal spray flu vaccine, which has not worked as well in recent years. It’s a slight break from the opinion of the …
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Urgent care centers have been eating away at patient volumes previously owned by hospital systems, prompting those systems to get into the urgent care game by buying or building locations. Simply setting up shop may not be enough to recapture those patients, however, if they’re run along the same lines as the hospitals themselves, suggests an analysis published by Becker’s Hospital Review. It goes so far as to suggest that hospital systems could learn a …
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We first told you in February that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase were banding together to use then-unspecified means to put the brakes on high healthcare spending among their collective million-plus workers. They even hired a CEO for the joint healthcare project, still without any public acknowledgment of their plans. The picture is coming into clearer focus today, though, as Amazon is hatching a plan to establish urgent care-like clinics for on-site employees, starting with …
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Urgent care has become more prevalent across the country for years, but new data from Massachusetts put a number on its growth there that is likely higher than many would have predicted. The number of urgent care centers grew 800% from 2010 through the end of 2017, according to a report from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. Retail clinics are also multiplying, though at a lower rate. By way of explanation, the Commission said it …
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The patient is a 58-year-old female with a recently inserted infusion port, presenting with new-onset left shoulder pain. View the images taken and consider your next steps, along with possible diagnoses.
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