Practice Management
According to the Department of Justice, Azhar Shakeel, MD, has settled with state and federal agencies for $619,994 to resolve a False Claims Act violation. Shakeel, who owns and operates Urgent Care of Muskogee, Urgent Care of Checotah, and Muskogee Medical Care in Oklahoma, allegedly submitted claims to several federally funded healthcare programs during times in which it was believed he was not actually in the centers seeing patients. A department press release notes that …
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Emergency department (ED) visits have been on an upward trend in the United States. A retrospective analysis of visit data from the National Center for Health Statistics published in Cureus found a consistent increase in overall ED visits among adults within the previous 12 months from 1999 to 2019. The prevalence of ED visits ranged from 17.2% +/- 0.3% in 1999 to 21.7% +/- 0.3% in 2019 with slightly higher visit rates among females than …
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CVS Health is rolling out a new store structure in several markets that combines Oak Street Health clinics alongside the traditional retail pharmacy. About 2 dozen locations are open or set to open by the end of the year in New York City, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Chicago, and Columbus, Ohio, according to Forbes. CVS acquired Oak Street Health and its 200 clinics—which are largely focused on the Medicare Advantage market—for $10.6 billion in 2023. The …
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At the end of the year, more than 180,000 Google employees will no longer have the perk of One Medical primary care membership when the contract between Google and Amazon, the clinics’ parent company, ends, according to Healthcare Dive. Whether the action has anything to do with the recent questions about One Medical’s call center triage is anyone’s guess. Google was One Medical’s largest employer client. At one time, some Google offices featured on-site One …
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At least 39 healthcare providers and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) are suing UnitedHealth Group over the Change Healthcare hack, claiming they have not financially recovered from the ransomware attack that took place in February. UnitedHealth Group’s CEO in an earnings call said the company was “a little over-optimistic” about how quickly business would return to normal. The company’s IT systems are mostly restored, but the company is still catching up on the claims …
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Humana is set to lease clinical space in Walmart Supercenter stores in 4 states, according to reports from Healthcare Dive. Twenty-three CenterWell Senior Primary Care and Conviva Care Centers clinics in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Texas will be ready to deliver care to seniors by the middle of next year. Insurance giant Humana—with its focus on Medicare Advantage—already operates 300 primary care centers in 15 states. Profit power push: Humana is one of many organizations …
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Last week’s CrowdStrike software crash left some health systems in emergency downtime situations, while others ended up delaying patients’ medical procedures, according to Healthcare Dive. The crash has been characterized in Becker’s as “worse than a cyberattack.” The American Hospital Association also said: “These disruptions are resulting in some clinical procedure delays, diversions, or cancellations. Impact is also being felt indirectly as a result of local emergency call centers being down.” Some scheduling, check-in, and …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sent a 9-member team of epidemiologists, veterinarians, and clinicians, plus an industrial hygienist, to Colorado to assist with managing a bird flu outbreak affecting both humans and poultry, according to the agency. Colorado reported 4 confirmed human cases of the infection and a possible 5th case earlier this week. As part of the ongoing evaluation, additional samples are being tested with the anticipation of additional cases …
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Healthcare leaders in eastern Massachusetts have agreed to a 90-day collaborative initiative to address the expected surge in local emergency department visits this summer, according to NBC Boston. Plans call for directing more patients to urgent care facilities when appropriate. Last week, the state department of insurance issued a memo detailing plans for insurers and urgent care providers aimed at managing the “typically high” volume of emergency room visits from July 3 to October 1. …
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How free-standing emergency departments (EDs) present themselves to the community continues to cause confusion for patients, ultimately leading to unexpectedly higher medical bills and negative overall experiences. Some free-standing EDs have the term “urgent care” in their name, which many believe is misleading. And now there is at least one effort to investigate a class action lawsuit for patients who accessed what they believed was urgent care—based on the facility’s sign out front—only to find …
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