Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

CA $25 Minimum Wage Has Ripple Effect on Access

As previously reported in JUCM News, California is set to raise minimum wages for healthcare workers to $25—and that specifically includes urgent care employees. The new minimum wage law was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week, and it allows pay hikes to phase in over time, beginning in June 2024 at $21 per hour, then rising to $22 per hour starting in June 2026, finally reaching $25 per hour in June 2027. Some organizations …

How Proposed Michigan Rule Reduces the Pool of X-ray Techs

The Administrative Rules Division of Michigan is recommending the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration adopt American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) standards for staff members who take x-ray images. Currently, Michigan does not require specific training for non-exempted x-ray techs—being one of approximately 10 states that allows urgent care (UC) employers to provide their own on-the-job training. However, if the ARRT proposal is adopted, x-ray techs would need an associate’s degree from an approved …

Dollar General Tests Mobile Healthcare

Dollar General, with more than 19,000 retail stores, has entered into a strategic partnership with mobile medical services company DocGo. The plan is to deploy mobile clinics to rural areas where Dollar General has a foothold. Approximately 80% of Dollar General’s stores are located in towns with populations of fewer than 20,000 residents, which are typically areas short on clinicians as well. DocGo’s self-pay rates start at $69. On the ground, a pilot program in …

One Medical Adds to Bezos’ Wealth

This year’s Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans includes a class of 11 healthcare leaders, topped by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. The reason why Bezos—and his $161 billion bank account—qualifies in the healthcare category is because of Amazon’s recent acquisition of the primary care concierge-medicine provider One Medical. For $199 a year, One Medical members receive low-acuity services, labs, same-day appointments, and no-cost 24/7 access to virtual care. The company operates brick-and-mortar locations …

WellNow Fellowship Program Recognizes New Graduates

The fall 2023 class of fellows completing the WellNow Urgent Care Traditional and Accelerated Fellowship program turned their tassels and celebrated their graduation day at the end of September. Since 2018, a total of 216 fellows in 6 states have graduated from WellNow’s development programs, and 90 percent of graduates have gone on to serve in full time positions as advanced practice providers (APPs) at WellNow centers. According to Chief Medical Officer Robert Biernbaum, DO, …

Carbon Health Inks Risk-Based Contract with UHC

In a recent webcast, Steve Cain, CEO of UnitedHealthcare of California, and Myoung Cha, Chief Strategy Officer of Carbon Health, announced that the insurer will begin an at-risk primary care arrangement for the state’s commercial PPO market in partnership with Carbon Health, starting in January 2024. The deal represents Carbon Health’s first at-risk arrangement. Under the contract, Carbon Health will be accountable for the total cost of care for UnitedHealthcare’s PPO-covered lives in the state over the …

Perfect Timing: How Urgent Care and APP’s May Be Fueling Each Other’s Growth

New data from unrelated sources indicate that nurse practitioners and physician assistants (known collectively as advanced practice providers, or APPs) and urgent care may be intersecting more frequently, and more beneficially, than ever before. While the nursing education group Nursing Process notes that emergency departments/urgent care centers are among the top 12 settings in which NPs are in high demand, an article published by US News & World Report puts NPs in the top spot …

Patients Are More Likely to Trust ‘Independent’ Practices—and the Reason Is Interesting

It’s well-established that patients value urgent care because it’s typically much more expedient than the emergency room, and certainly primary care practices. Proximity and savvy marketing may help you differentiate yourself from competitors who offer those same advantages, but are there even more basic considerations that draw patients to one locations vs another? New data released by Software Advice suggest that patients who choose independent healthcare practices vs those owned by large corporations do so …

A Small Sample, but Interesting Answers: ‘Emergency Room, Urgent Care, or Virtual Care?’

Educating the public on the benefits of urgent care vs the emergency room and other settings is a central challenge in the urgent care industry. This is especially true when it comes to getting through to patients who will at some point experience quintessential urgent care-worthy symptoms like cough, sore throat, and eye infection. The results of a recent poll that Cigna posted on LinkedIn, asking Where should you go for care if you are …

Healthcare Companies Are Cutting Jobs—Bringing Them Closer to a Typical Urgent Care Model

MedExpress is the latest healthcare company to announce downsizing designed to trim operating expenses. WSAZ News in Huntington/Charleston, WV reported the company is laying off all registered nurses at 150 locations as early as September 7, in concert with even more widespread layoffs in the UnitedHealth Group/Optum universe. It’s a move not likely to be adopted by other urgent care operations, which for the most part do not count RNs among their clinical teams to …