Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Data Breach Could Affect 13,000 Patients

MedSpring Urgent Care was the victim of a data breach thanks to a phishing scam recently, possibly exposing the health information of some 13,000 patients. It started when a single employee fell prey to phishing—something that wasn’t discovered for a week and half, during which time the patient records were exposed. Once it discovered the breach, MedSpring blocked the unauthorized party’s access to the email account and brought in a cybersecurity vendor to figure out …

New Data Breach Exposed Information on 200,000+ Urgent Care Patients

It’s unclear whether human error or ill intent on the part of hackers is to blame, but on July 10 the records of more than 200,000 patients who had visited Premier Immediate Medical Care was exposed was “left exposed” for over a month on a practice management software server. The software provider, MedEvolve, says it is notifying current and former Premier patients that their names, billing addresses, telephone numbers, insurance status, and, for some, Social …

Last Flu Season Was the Deadliest Ever for Children—and Most Victims Weren’t Vaccinated

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that the 2017-2018 flu season saw 172 children die from influenza—the most recent being just a week ago. It’s the deadliest flu season ever for children, a record made all the more tragic by the fact that 80% of the children who died were not vaccinated against the flu, according to the CDC. In addition to the flu being especially severe, it remained active in every …

JUCM Launches Web Redesign with Improved Navigation and Mobile-Friendly Display

JUCM, The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine has led the way in bringing original, peer-reviewed clinical and practice management content to the urgent care industry since 2006. Now the best has gotten even better by redesigning its website to offer better mobile access, easier navigation and search functions, and the ability to download every print issue ever published in its history. In addition to its award-winning print issues, JUCM will continue to offer web-exclusive content, …

Humana Prefers You Don’t Know the Details of Its $45 Billion Tricare Contract

Humana’s military unit has filed suit against the federal Defense Health Agency in an effort to block the details of its $45 billion Tricare managed care contract from becoming public, as reported late yesterday by Law360. Humana Military is seeking a permanent injunction blocking the agency’s decision to disclose certain proprietary information provided by Humana as part of its bid for the Tricare contract, according to the complaint filed in Washington, DC federal court. Though …

Need a Resource for Patients Confused About Urgent Care? Try Consumer Reports

Local news outlets, insurers, and countless urgent care operators have tried to help patients understand when it makes the most sense to go to an urgent care center, as opposed to the emergency room or a retail clinic. Now Consumer Reports, a publication viewed as unimpeachable by many, is taking a crack at it. An article recently published there suggests the urgent care center may be the best choice when a patient needs stitches or …

UCAOA Reimagines Itself as UCA to Reflect the Evolution of On-Demand Care

As noted in the latest benchmarking data on the urgent care industry, the very nature of on-demand care has changed since the birth of the Urgent Care Association of America. To demonstrate that this is not a time for “business as usual,” UCAOA announced at its recent annual convention in Las Vegas that it’s changing its name to the Urgent Care Association (UCA) and expanding its offerings to include new providers and technologies that are …

Multimillion Dollar Settlement a Reminder that Noncompliance with Medicare Costs

CityMD will pay a $6.6 million settlement over a variety of charges related to treating Medicare patients at its 96 urgent care centers. The U.S. Department of Justice claims the company billed Medicare for services by physicians who did not actually provide them, and charged for more complex procedures than were actually performed or that were unsupported by the documentation provided. By doing so, CityMD received higher reimbursements than it would have if it billed …

Physician Is Among Those Indicted in Phony Prescription Scheme

A Detroit-area physician is among the clinicians indicted in an alleged scheme to overprescribe numerous commonly abused drugs. Asm Akter Ahmed, MD has already been stripped of his license to practice medicine based on charges that he wrote prescriptions destined for four co-conspiring pharmacists, who then fraudulently billed Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield for the medications—some of which were never even dispensed. The estimated cost of the operation, which ran from 2011 through …

Facebook Fesses Up to Asking Hospitals for Patient Data

Facebook is in hot water in the wake of revelations that Cambridge Analytica gained access to user data inappropriately. Now the social media pioneer admits that, at the same time, it was on the hunt for healthcare data on its own users, having asked hospitals to share information on illness and prescriptions for unnamed patients. Paradoxically, the company says it sought the information in order to help “major U.S. hospitals” identify patients who may need …