Practice Management
Despite a growing stack of negative press clippings and legislative scrutiny, freestanding emergency rooms continue to take in patients off the street and charge them far more than they’d pay for the same services at urgent care centers. New data from four institutions in Texas reveal that mean out-of-pocket spending jumped 66% between 2012 and 2015 in the Lone Star State. Out-of-pocket costs grew by 38.5% at hospital-based EDs and by just 8.9% at urgent …
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is going to issue new Medicare cards, replacing beneficiaries’ Social Security numbers with unique ID numbers, by April 2019. However, the Health & Human Services Advisory Panel on Outreach and Educations says CMS isn’t doing enough to share more about the process with healthcare providers, who will have to make significant changes in their billing practices as the new ID card system is implemented gradually; CMS will start …
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The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of for Civil Rights (HHS OCR) has made it very clear that it’s the operator’s responsibility to police its own data policies—even among employees. Memorial Healthcare Systems (MHS) found that out the hard way, and now has to pay HHS $5.5 million to settle “potential violations” of HIPAA’s Privacy and Security rules, and to implement a “robust” 3-year corrective action plan and resolution agreement. HHS came …
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By 2030, there will be a significant gap between the number of physicians who are practicing in the U.S. and the number needed to care for our aging population, according to new data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). At best, it would amount to a shortfall of 40,800 providers—at worst, 104,900, the association says. For primary care, the estimated shortage will be between 8,700 and 43,100 physicians by 2030. Emergency medicine, anesthesiology, …
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A new study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals that the risk for long-term opioid use—defined as use that lasts for at least 1 year—increases within just a few days of starting to take a prescribed opioid drug. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at data reflecting the care of more than a million patients who received at least one opioid prescription between June 1, 2006, and September 1, …
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The episodic nature of the urgent care setting makes it a popular target for opioid addicts “doctor shopping” for someone new to write prescriptions. As such, urgent care clinicians must remain always-vigilant for ways to help stem rampant opioid addiction. One tool that’s built into the urgent care electronic medical record systems (eprescribing) can be a valuable weapon in that fight. Where a paper script—or, worse, a whole pad—can be lost or stolen, an electronic …
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Just last week we told you that Code 3 Emergency Partners was setting up shop with an urgent care center and freestanding emergency room at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). Now the company has announced plans for an urgent care center and pharmacy at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, as well; that location is slated to open in May of this year. The moves are far from random, as Code 3 CEO Carrie de …
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Your child wakes up with a sore throat and a fever. Like any responsible parent, you take a sick day and call the pediatrician, only to hear “Sorry, nothing today. We may be able to squeeze you in tomorrow afternoon.” Now what? Well, 42% of the 2,000+ parents surveyed in the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health say they would take their child to an urgent care center, retail clinic, or the …
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Whether it’s due to changes in the healthcare insurance landscape, the habits of millennials, or just plain societal evolution, the public continues to recognize urgent care as a viable option more every year—reflected in the increasing number of centers around the country (up 10% since 2015, according to the Urgent Care Association of America). Hospitals were a little late to the party, but are making up for lost time by continuing to open their own …
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Righttime Medical Care has developed a program within its urgent care practice for assessing patients, often young athletes, for concussion. Called HeadFirst Sports Injury and Concussion Care, it boasts clinical staff trained in FDA-approved baseline tests. As with any new idea, however, the challenge is making sure the people who need your services know you’re there. Righttime hit upon the right idea when they linked their own promotional efforts to the Brain Injury Association of …
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