Practice Management
Urgent Message: With STI rates rising, urgent care centers have a unique opportunity to address a pressing public health need and increase patient volumes and revenue by adding STI testing services. Citation: Ayers A. The Urgent Need for STI Testing in Urgent Care Centers. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(10)39-42 Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are acquired every day.1 …
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Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc The following table summarizes the 100 largest urgent care operators by number of locations as of May 2024, based on data provided by National Urgent Care Realty and Experity. Because of the significant number of private operators that also operate facilities with hospital partners, this year’s list delineates the breakdown of health-system-affiliated locations. Data is reported by the parent entity as opposed to regional brands, partnerships, or affiliations. Of the nation’s …
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Urgent Message: Location and accessibility are keys to success for any urgent care. Operators must avoid common pitfalls when evaluating a site for their next venture. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, is President of Experity Consulting and is Senior Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Citation: Ayers, A. Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Urgent Care Site Selection. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(9): 22-25 Experience tells us that friendly service, competent providers, short wait …
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International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes—maintained by the World Health Organization and published in the United States by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—standardize the categorization and reporting of patient diagnoses. Currently, U.S. healthcare operators use the ICD-10 edition. The analysis below examines 2023 urgent care visits logged by users of Experity’s electronic medical record, revealing that 28,686 diagnosis codes were documented in urgent care patient medical records. While it’s logical to conclude …
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Urgent Message: Undeliverable refunds of patient balances do not become property of the urgent care center, but rather, after effort to contact patients, must be turned over to the state. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Citation: Ayers A. What Does Unclaimed Property Mean for Urgent Care Providers? J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(8):29-31 Urgent care centers frequently carry patient balances due to overpayment. This happens with co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles, or other out-of-pocket outlays when the …
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Whereas primary care is focused on prevention and management of chronic conditions, urgent care has historically been defined as episodic treatment for non-acute or acutely rising conditions—which are not medical emergencies but generally call for evaluation within 24 hours. As such, it would be expected that urgent care providers would prescribe medications only for the duration of a current infection or until a patient can follow-up with a specialist or primary care physician, for example. …
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A compilation of 2022 and 2023 de novo urgent care center data shows a 7% decline in new locations: from 1,651 de novo centers in 2022 to 1,540 in 2023. A “de novo” center is a new urgent care location where services were not offered previously. The unit of measure is the physical site, meaning if an existing location already in operation happened to change ownership, such change is not counted as de novo growth. …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc Urgent Message: The uncertain and extended payment cycle for treating personal injuries caused by third parties, which may be subject to litigation or settlement, can be managed using tools such as letters of protection and medical liens. It’s not uncommon for an individual seriously injured in an accident or by medical negligence to bring a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault party. If found liable, the at-fault party is held …
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Citation: Ayers A. Private Equity Ownership in Urgent Care By Number of Centers, 2024. J Urgent Care Med. 2024; 18(7):33-34 Although private equity started nibbling on urgent care as far back as 2007, its full investment push kicked off with the 2010 acquisitions and scaling of NextCare, MedExpress, and FastMed. Since that time, some regional platforms like Physicians Immediate Care, MD Now, and PhysicianOne have completed the entire private equity investment lifecycle of acquisition, scaling, and final …
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Urgent Message: A supervising physician can be named in a lawsuit for malpractice against a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, however, there are steps supervising physicians can take to protect themselves against such actions. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc In urgent care settings, physicians are often responsible for supervising and overseeing a team of other healthcare employees, including nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants (PAs), and medical assistants (MAs). If any member of this team is …
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