Practice Management
Hybrid health provider SSM Health Medical Group, which does business in the urgent care, hospital, primary care, and retail arenas, has signed an agreement to take over operation of 27 retail clinics housed in Walgreens drugstores in the St. Louis area. When the transition is complete next fall, the locations will be renamed SSM Health Express Clinic at Walgreens. Until then, it will be business as usual for those walk-in locations. Walgreens and SSM Health …
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An outbreak of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Vancouver, WA—in which four times the number of cases reported in a typical year have been reported—appears to be related to an outbreak of Zika virus in the area, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC notes that Brazil, in which the mosquito that carries Zika is found in great numbers, also saw an increase in cases of Guillain-Barre following a spike in Zika infections. …
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UnitedHealth Group has been saying for months that it may opt to not participate in insurance exchange programs set up under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”). Apparently it was no idle threat, as the biggest insurer in the country says it will not sell plans in Arkansas or Georgia next year. The company has said the ACA plans are not profitable enough to justify their participation. UnitedHealth and Aetna both saw losses on …
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Apparently, patients don’t see a need to pay Cadillac prices for the “Cadillac” of healthcare services (wherever they may exist). Most participants in a new report published in Health Affairs don’t associate higher cost with higher quality when it comes to making healthcare decisions—a departure from the expected consumer mindset when it comes to buying other goods and services. Among the questions included in the survey: “Would you say higher prices are typically a sign …
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Colorado is considering legislation that would require freestanding emergency rooms to post notices throughout the building alerting patients that they have stepped into an emergency room, where they will be afforded emergency care for emergent medical conditions (and pay emergency-level charges). The bill was inspired by complaints from consumers who have mistakenly sought care in freestanding ERs, thinking they had gone to an urgent care center—where costs are lower and more likely to be covered …
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Military members and their families covered under Tricare Prime, Tricare Prime Remote, or Tricare Young Adult–Prime will be allowed two urgent care visits without a referral per year, thanks to a pilot program starting May 23. Right now, beneficiaries need a referral before going to urgent care. Delays in getting appointments with a primary care provider have been a common complaint among military families for years, putting pressure on the Department of Defense to reconsider …
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URGENT MESSAGE: American consumers have been conditioned to expect high levels of customer service in exchange for their hard-earned money, so when urgent care fails to deliver on patient expectations, the result can be devastating to a center’s reputation. Fortunately, negative experiences can be turned around by practical strategies for dealing with angry patients. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Management Editor of JUCM—The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, a member of the Board …
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If just 10 common, low-acuity conditions had been treated somewhere other than the emergency room, the health system in New York could have saved $1.3 billion, according to state Department of Health claims data analyzed by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. That analysis takes into account 6.4 million ED visits—more than 2 million of which were deemed suitable for treatment in an urgent care center, primary care office, or via telemedicine—for “bumps and bruises,” joint aches, ear …
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As concerns surface that a warm summer may spread Zika virus to New York City and Los Angeles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has opted to take $589 million earmarked for Ebola virus initiatives and apply it to fighting Zika instead. The CDC has also warned that the mosquito that carries Zika is on the move. While initial reports suggested that U.S. Zika cases were limited to individuals who had traveled to affected …
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After a decades-long slog toward elimination of tuberculosis in the United States, 2015 saw a slight increase in the number of domestic TB cases. While around half of all reported cases occurred in Texas, California, Florida, and New York, 29 states and the District of Columbia reported increases over 2014. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that lower funding of TB prevention programs may be on reason, urgent care clinicians faced with …
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