Practice Management
Telemedicine has been hyped as a savior for both patients with poor access to quality local healthcare and operators who want to increase revenue by providing that care. Business has not exactly been booming for most, however, possibly due to lack of awareness among the public or slow adoption by payers. As competition for patients heats up among various segments of the provider landscape, however, there may be a bigger push to capture patients who …
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When they asked prolific criminal Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, he allegedly replied simply, “That’s where the money is.” To flip the question, if all your patients (and prospective new patients) are on social media, why aren’t you doing more to seek them out there? Answers on how to remedy that will be offered in a free webinar to be hosted by the Urgent Care Association (UCA) on Thursday, July 19, 1–2 pm, Central. …
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An urgent care operator in upstate New York has agreed to pay $110,000 to settle charges that it submitted false claims to Medicare. The U.S. Attorney for the region alleged that between January 2013 and October 2015 the company billed over 99% of its Medicare fees as if services had been provided or supervised directly by a physician, even though at least some of them had been provided by advanced practice providers (ie, nurse practitioners …
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Urgent message: The ability to differentiate deep vein thrombosis from other diagnoses such as cellulitis is important in choosing the correct treatment option. Jeff Heimiller, MD Case Presentation A 34-year-old male presented with a 1-week of right calf pain that was exacerbated by palpation and walking. He was unable to see his primary care physician that day, so he went to urgent care for evaluation. The patient also reported a sensation of shortness of breath …
Read MoreThe urgent care industry—always revolutionary compared with other practice settings—is undergoing a revolution of its own. First, entrepreneurial physicians ruled the roost (recall the much-maligned and unfairly categorized “doc in a box”). Then, hospitals figured out they were missing the boat on the practice and financial benefits of the urgent care approach and began acquiring or building their own urgent care centers. As of 2016, though, corporate ownership is most prevalent, followed by physician and …
Read MoreQ: I would like clarification on an article I read in The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine (JUCM) online archive. The article, Splint and Cast Application Performed by Someone Other than Physician, referenced that nonphysician staff could bill for splint and cast application. Will you please expand on the references and confirm that we can bill for splint and cast application if it is done by someone on staff other than the physician? A: Yes, …
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Case A 52-year-old man presented to urgent care with a 2-day history of dizziness. He denies chest pain, syncope, shortness of breath, or diaphoresis. He is not taking any medications, and has no noteworthy personal medical history. Upon exam, you find: General: Alert and oriented X 3, slightly pale Lungs: CTAB Cardiovascular: Irregularly irregular and tachycardic without murmur, rub, or gallop Abdomen: Soft and NT, no pulsatile mass Ext: No peripheral edema, pulses are 2+ …
Read MoreCDC Attributes 200+ Cases of Coagulopathy to Synthetic Cannaboids Key point: “Marijuana alternatives” are widely available—and being blamed for multiple deaths. Citation: Moritz E, Austin C, Wahl M, et al. Notes from the field: outbreak of severe illness linked to the vitamin K antagonist brodifacoum and use of synthetic cannabinoids—Illinois, March–April 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018;67:607–608. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that they have received more than 200 reported cases …
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Case The patient is a 3-year-old female who is brought to your urgent care center by her parents, who report that she has been limping and crying intermittently seemingly without reason for the past several hours. Her father says she cries acutely when picked up, but that she calms down quickly with comforting. View the images taken (Figure 1 and Figure 2) and consider what the diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the …
Read MoreUrgent message: To avoid running afoul of labor and tax laws, urgent care operators should understand what constitutes an “independent contractor” vs an “employee” and classify and pay their physicians appropriately. 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. Introduction Many smaller, independent urgent care providers pay their physicians under 1099 arrangements rather than with W-2 income. There are …
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