Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

What Would Doing Away with ‘Incident-to’ Billing Mean for NPs and PAs—and Urgent Care?

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s unanimous recommendation that Congress do away with “incident-to” billing could have a strong effect on physician assistants and nurse practitioners—and therefore, considering the growing role PAs and NPs play in this setting, on urgent care overall. If incident-to billing is eliminated, PAs and NPs will have to bill independently and at a lower reimbursement rate than they do now. Currently, the services of PAs and NPs who are truly assisting …

Study: Despite Slow Starts, Large Health Systems Plan to Continue Growing into Urgent Care

A new GoHealth Urgent Care-supported study by The Health Management Academy indicates that 74% of leading health systems are likely to expand their urgent care presence over the next 5 years, though only 11% say they’re “thriving” in urgent care at this point. (For purposes of the survey, “leading health systems” include the top 25 U.S. health systems based on net patient revenue per health system.) According to Thriving in the Urgent Care Market: The …

Millennial Physicians: High in Numbers, Hard to Recruit—Here’s What You Need to Know

Much has been written and said about the preferences of patients in the Millennial generation (defined by Pew Research as anyone born between 1981 and 1996). And rightly so; they’re a sizable portion of your prospective patient population. What may be overlooked, however, is the fact that this same age segment also makes up a sizable portion of your prospective workforce, including physicians. In fact, according to a blog post on the UCA website, authored …

Free JUCM Webinar: Doing Your Part to Stem Deadly Antibiotic Resistance

It’s estimated that 23,000 people in the United States die from drug-resistant infections annually. Overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics is one of the key culprits in that phenomenon. And yet, antibiotics are an indispensable weapon against disease; ceasing to prescribe them is not an option. The only answer is for all healthcare providers to prescribe responsibly. To learn more about what that really means in the urgent care center, carve out some time to …

Provider Burnout Is a Very Real Threat—But It’s Not Unpreventable

On the heels of a World Health Organization decision to classify burnout as a legitimate workplace phenomenon, the National Academy of Medicine just released a report focused on preventing, identifying, and helping to manage clinician burnout. It also estimates that between one third and one half of all clinicians in the United States are affected by burnout. Objectives laid out in the report include establishing positive work environments; addressing burnout in training and at the …

PAs and NPs Are Seeing Lots of Patients; Make Sure Everyone’s on the Same Page

Physician assistants and nurse practitioners, known collectively as advanced practice providers (APPs), are doing a great job administering care to patients in urgent care centers and other settings all over the country. With the worsening physician shortage, their contributions are going to become more and more essential as time goes on. So, it’s more important than ever to ensure that all the clinicians in your urgent care operation are working in concert with each other. …

In Texas, Even the Urgent Care Savings Are Big

Texas has taken some hard knocks for the proliferation of freestanding emergency rooms there—especially in light of criticism of that industry for surprise billing. It seems too many patients walk into a freestanding ED thinking it’s an urgent care center, only to be socked with emergency room-like charges weeks or months later. The upside (for urgent care, anyway) is that the controversies prompted the Texas Association of Health Plans to do a study of cost …

Urgent Care Is Getting Good Press for Antibiotic Stewardship Efforts

Last year, urgent care was among the fields to be called out for too often prescribing antibiotics when none was warranted. The data were somewhat misleading, given that urgent care is also a setting to which many antibiotic-seeking patients turn. Nonetheless, the industry collectively took stock of itself and vowed to improve; and the fruits of that labor are already evident, and the world is noticing. The Urgent Care Association, for one, created an Antibiotic …

UCA Webinar: If Your Medical Equipment Isn’t in Tip-Top Order, Neither Is Your Facility

All the clinical expertise in the world won’t help you treat patients efficiently and properly if the tools of your trade aren’t in perfect working order. And in order to ensure the medical equipment you’ve invested so much in is up to performing its intended task, you’ve got to be aware of current standards. The Urgent Care Association will offer insights into how you can stay ahead of the need for calibration, preventive maintenance, and …

CDC: Patients with Lung Damage from E-Cigs Can Deteriorate Quickly; Treat Accordingly

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new, interim guidelines on assessing and treating patients with lung disease that could have been caused by use of e-cigarettes. The guidance emphasizes that close follow-up is needed, in light of cases in which “some patients who initially had mild symptoms experienced a rapid worsening of symptoms within 48 hours.” The CDC says it will continue to refine its recommendations as new data emerge. As of …

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