Marketplace

The United States Department of Agriculture is investing $110 million toward development and improvement of healthcare resources in rural parts of 43 U.S. states and Guam. Funds from the Emergency Rural Health Grants Program are earmarked to help rural hospitals and healthcare providers buy medical supplies, boost staffing levels for COVID-19 vaccines and testing, build or renovate facilities, and initiate telehealth and nutrition-assistance programs. The program is also intended to “help regional partnerships, public bodies, …

Just weeks ago we told you that 17 hospitals and healthcare systems from coast to coast were cutting back certain services. One of them, Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, has already closed its emergency room and the ripple effect is threatening to overwhelm other area healthcare facilities. Within days of Wellstar closing its ED doors, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, Grady Memorial Hospital, and Emory Midtown Hospital reported surges in their ED traffic, with Grady also seeing 25% …

It wasn’t that long ago that we told you HCA Healthcare was buying BetterMed, adding 12 locations in central Virginia to the fold. Now HCA has announced an even bigger purchase: MD Now Urgent Care and its 59 centers in Florida, giving it 170 locations in 19 markets. The deal is yet another example of the value that companies with substantial hospital holdings see in acquiring urgent care properties. For more insights on that phenomenon …

An already-dire situation for the rural hospital market is getting tougher by the month as costs across the board to continue rise. As noted in an article published by Healthcare Dive, labor, medications, and everyday supplies keep going up while patient volume and reimbursements are stagnant or even falling in some areas. It’s gotten so bad that the American Hospital Association is expressing concern that access to care could become a major challenge—which could point …

MedExpress’s decision to close down its 7-year-old urgent care center in Haverhill, MA last month didn’t sit well with Mayor James Fiorentini. Obviously, no civic-minded public official wants to see a successful business vacate the community, for economic reasons alone. But hizzoner has been very public in decrying the void the departure leaves in the town’s healthcare resources. According to an article published in the local newspaper Eagle Tribune, Fiorentini is “looking to recruit another …

JUCM News readers are aware that Amazon has tried many times, in many ways, over many years to chisel out a piece of the U.S. healthcare marketplace. Most recently, we told you that they opted to spend $3.9 billion to buy One Medical—a departure from Amazon’s brand recognition as a giant in the online marketplace given that One Medical has 125 brick-and-mortar locations. Now, according to a report from CNBC, they’ve taken another step away …

The portrait of an urgent care owner continues to evolve along with the diverse services offered at the clinic level, with private equity and venture capitalist buyers taking to heart the notion that diversity is key when putting together an investment portfolio. The most recent example: The Aspen Group, which recently acquired Physicians Immediate Care in Chicago and owns 180 urgent care centers in the Northeast and Midwest U.S., just bought AZPetVet, an Arizona company …

It’s generally perceived that robust investment is a sign of good health for a marketplace. And certainly if you’re an urgent care operator it’s good news when private equity ponies up funding to fuel your growth. A report just published by MedCity News raises the question of whether it as healthy for patients and the overall U.S. healthcare system, however. The concern, according to the article, is that PE could push to reduce costs by …

You just can’t beat Amazon when it comes to stocking items on the back-to-school list once everything’s been sufficiently picked over at Staples and Walmart. The company has tried in various ways to capitalize on its good name in entering the healthcare marketplace, to no avail. Now they’re trying a different tactic: buying an already established concern. The virtual retail colossus announced a $3.9 billion deal to take over One Medical and its 125 brick-and-mortar …

JUCM News readers are well aware that there’s been tremendous merger-and-acquisition activity in the urgent care marketplace in 2022—and it’s certainly not cooling off in the midsummer period. Most recently, WellNow Urgent Care acquired Physicians Immediate Care and its 55 urgent care and occupational medicine facilities in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. That brings the total number of WellNow centers to 128 in six states. And Fast Pace Health just completed its previously announced investment in …