Practice Management
On-site medical facilities are common in manufacturing operations and even some larger corporate offices. However, smaller businesses are starting to look at skyrocketing healthcare costs and realizing there may be real benefits in having a provider on the premises, as well. One car dealership in Albuquerque, NM has seen its health costs and absenteeism go down since bringing in a provider to check out workers who aren’t feeling well, administer flu shots, and help employees …
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Major changes are afoot for urgent care centers that treat patients under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), thanks to a new rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is imposing. In addition to new requirements for insurers, the rule also creates new compliance and administrative burdens that could affect revenue for medical practices (eg, requiring care coordination between different settings and institution of quality-rating systems and allowing states to encourage …
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended its travel warning for pregnant women to one area within Miami, as 14 people there have contracted Zika virus after being bitten by virus-carrying mosquitos locally. The first four cases were reported July 29, but that number more than tripled in just three days. Florida is the first state to report local transmission of Zika via mosquito. The CDC maintains there is no evidence of widespread …
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There’s no softening the blow when a community faces a devastating loss, as Dallas did recently when five police officers were murdered and nine others injured. As seen in New York City after 9/11, though, devastation can also be the catalyst for banding together and inspire ordinary citizens to support each other like never before. In the aftermath of the Dallas tragedy, the staff at Legacy ER and Urgent Care, which serves North Texas, expressed …
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“Convenient location” is a relative term; an address that works for the greatest number of people can still leave many patients outside of your urgent care center’s reach. Oregon’s Samaritan Health Services is trying to bridge that gap by taking its act on the road—Route I-5, to be exact. Pull into the truck plaza just off exit 216 and you’ll see what looks like a semi with SamCare Mobile Medical emblazoned on the outside. Inside, …
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Doctors who tire of typing into screens all day have often assumed that patients share their pain. While it may be true that patients usually do feel ill when they’re around an EHR—they’ve come to the urgent care center for a reason, after all—it probably isn’t the software that’s making them feel that way. A study of patients at a University of Chicago ambulatory clinic revealed positive impressions of physicians’ computer use; as a group, …
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Local media around the country are starting to report people being injured moving down the street—most often on foot, but some drivers, too—while distracted by the game Pokémon Go. Yes, some of them might end up in an urgent care center, but the most important thing for operators to be aware of is that Niantic, the game’s maker, plans to offer local advertising opportunities soon. The location-based game for mobile devices tracks the player’s movements …
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The United States is a transient society, with approximately 12% of Americans changing residences each year. The rates are much higher for those living in apartments (24%) vs owner-occupied homes (5%) and for young people under age 34 (34%) than those more established in their homes, families, and careers. Data also indicate a continued out-migration from dense urban areas to the suburbs and exurbs and from the “rust belt” to the “sunbelt.” When a family …
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If it seems like freestanding emergency rooms are popping up everywhere, try driving through a less-tony zip code. Researchers from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital found growth of the ERs is concentrated in high-income areas with growing populations, more traditional ERs, a higher proportion of privately insured patients and a lower proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries. That leaves lower-income patients who need immediate care stuck waiting in the hospital emergency room, even if their complaints are …
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Recently we told you more than 300 people were charged with healthcare fraud involving some $900 million in false billings. Surely some were out to juke the system, but others were probably guilty of nothing more than poor compliance practices. Either way, the government is likely to continue cracking down on this multibillion dollar waste, making it a prudent time to shore up your own compliance program (as required under the Affordable Care Act [ACA, …
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