Practice Management
Duane Reade may still seem like it really does have a pharmacy on every corner of New York City, but none of those drugstores is going to house a clinic anymore. The company says it will close all its retail pharmacy clinics before New Year’s Day. The New York City Department of Health says the move is not likely to have dramatic impact because “the vast majority of primary care visits occur in non-retail clinic …
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If it were a nation unto itself, the U.S. healthcare system would have the fifth-largest economy in the world. As it is, it accounts for more than 17% of the U.S. economy—with spending in the emergency room being the fastest-growing portion, according to a new article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. U.S. Spending on Personal Health Care and Public Health, 1996-2013, by Joseph L. Dieleman, PhD, points out that Americans spend more …
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Urgent care clinicians have been told to test, or refer for testing, pregnant patients who could have been exposed to Zika virus (or had sexual relations with a partner would could have been exposed). Now the Food and Drug Administration says some such patients could have tested positive for Zika even though they don’t actually have not been infected. LabCorp’s ZIKV Detect test, specifically, should not be relied on to make “significant patient management decisions,” …
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Urgent care doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners who did not demonstrate that they met requirements for meaningful use of electronic health record systems as mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will see a 3% decrease in Medicare payments starting January 1, 2017. As you read here, CMS first announced its plans to require clinicians to show meaningful use during a finite 90-day period that year. That finite period was later …
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New state and local laws will take effect come the New Year all around the country. In Illinois, for example, one new law pertains to urgent care centers, specifically; it mandates that all locations display notices regarding human trafficking in a conspicuous place. More broadly, urgent care operations that provide occupational medicine services will certainly need to keep abreast of legal requirements in the states and municipalities where they practice, but all urgent care companies …
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Increasing healthcare spending and an aging population are expected to boost demand for cost-effective, convenient medical care—adding up to strong growth in the urgent care marketplace for the remainder of the decade, according to a new report from Market Research Search Engine (MRRSE). The company’s conclusions are based on in-depth interviews with key opinion leaders within urgent care, but also on extensive secondary research. The report describes the industry as “highly fragmented,” with “small players” …
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We told you months ago the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was assessing the viability and wisdom of banning use of powdered gloves in operating rooms and, more applicable to urgent care operators and clinicians, exam rooms. Now the agency says it has gathered sufficient evidence to publish a final rule banning the gloves, as well as absorbable powder for lubricating rubber gloves, due to “present an unreasonable and substantial risk of illness or injury. …
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Industry executives predict that as more patients come to understand the level and breadth of service available at urgent care centers, along with the cost and efficiency benefits, they’ll flock to centers in even greater numbers than they have in recent years. For example, the Urgent Care Association estimates that the average cost of a trip to an urgent care facility is $155, comparing favorably with the cost of an average trip to the emergency …
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The evolution of electronic health records (or, more specifically, the data they house) pairs well—and not so coincidentally—with the growth of urgent care over the past decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sees electronic data collection as having greater application and significance than simply allowing patient histories to be readily accessible, though. The CDC is working out the optimal way to foster sharing of healthcare data across literal borders to identify—and, hopefully, …
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Patients who read (or, maybe more likely, see an online or television commercial) about “new” disorders whose descriptions may apply to them could be inclined to run off to the urgent care center for immediate evaluation, even if there’s nothing urgent about their condition. Diagnoses that didn’t even exist or were seldom made a decade ago (eg, adult ADHD, low testosterone) are now being described in breathless detail. Even recognized disease states like diabetes continue …
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