Practice Management
With approximately 70% of the 14.8 million Americans who abuse drugs being employed, and the rate of deaths from overdose continuing to climb annually, workplace drug testing has become a key service for urgent care operators that offer occupational medicine services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims there’s been a 200% increase in the rate of overdose deaths attributed to opioid pain medications and heroin, and that nearly 2 million people in the …
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An 18-year-old male visits your urgent care center for the first time, complaining of chronic lower back pain. He offers no explanation of its onset, but reports (upon being asked about his typical activities) that he is a linebacker on his high school football team and a heavyweight on the wrestling team. View the image taken and consider your next steps, along with possible diagnoses.
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It hasn’t been 2 weeks since the first of two healthcare megadeals was announced (CVS buying Aetna, followed closely by UnitedHealth Group announcing it was going to buy DaVita’s medical group), but they’re already being cited as the reason for consolidation in the hospital marketplace. Dignity Health in California and Colorado’s Catholic Health Initiative are expected to team up in a move that would have the combined system controlling some 700 care cites and 139 …
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Emergency department spending jumped 85% over a 7-year period ending in 2015, according to new research by the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), even though ED use remained relatively stable. The reason for the increase in spending, according to the report, is that hospitals coded and charged more for high-severity cases during that timeframe. Drawing on charges associated with more than 70 million ED bills, HCCI found that visits billed to CPT codes 99285 and …
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Urgent message: Patients may find it difficult to understand when it makes the most sense to visit your urgent care locations if the level of acuity varies from one location to the next. Instituting repeatable processes and creating a consistent “brand promise” are essential to building a stable identity and making it easy for patients to trust your operation. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and …
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Whether web-, cloud-, or app-based, the virtual care market is expected to continue growing as technologies and business models keep evolving through at least 2027, according to a report form Persistence Market Research (PMR). Video applications (ie, via laptop, tablet, smartphones, and desktops) are expected to be more popular and prevalent than straight telephone communication or kiosks at employer sites, pharmacies, and hospitals. The shortage in primary care providers will also ensure that need grows …
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We told you in October that Walgreens was going to start offering services more aligned with urgent care than with traditional retail health services in Las Vegas. Now the pharmacy giant has announced broader plans in the urgent care sector: In addition to expanding those Las Vegas sites, they’re making similar moves in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. In each instance, they’ll be partnering with MedExpress (whose parent company, UnitedHealthCare, just announced plans to buy …
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The line between payers and providers bent even further this week, as UnitedHealth Group Inc. announced plans to buy HealthCare Partners from DaVita Inc. It’s the second major acquisition of its kind for UHC this year; the company paid $2.3 billion for Surgical Care Affiliates just last March. The latest proposed deal came to light just days after CVS Health said it’s buying Aetna. It’s all part of a strategy for health insurers to lower …
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Apparently recognizing that the general public has become aware of the life-threatening dangers of opioid pain medications, WVU Urgent Care has taken the initiative to promote its non–opioid philosophy for pain management. In an article posted their website, they take a stab at educating patients on other options that may be appropriate to help diminish pain, depending on the patient’s condition and needs. In that article, WVU Urgent Care physician Saira George, MD explains that the …
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It’s not an oversimplification to say that the difficult thing about providing care for truckers is that they’re not in the same place for long. What’s worse, there are certain occupational hazards that make access to care especially important. According to UrgentCareTravel (UCT), 80% of the 3.8 million professional truck drivers in the U.S. are obese; half live with untreated sleep apnea; and 65% don’t have a primary care physician. So, UCT is partnering with …
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