Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Virtual Medicine Better for Some Complaints than Others—Depending on the Provider

Virtual medicine works better for some presenting complaints than others—and varies widely by provider—according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers looked at how eight provider companies performed in recognizing, ordering tests, and diagnosing treatment for six common conditions. Though the study was not designed with urgent care in mind, the presentations included reflect common reasons for urgent care visits. Diagnostic accuracy was highest for recurrent female urinary tract infection (91%) and …

Urgent Care Costs Less than the ED for Pediatric Medicaid Patients

Visits to urgent care resulted in lower costs and a lower rate of return visits compared with visits to the emergency room among younger Medicaid patients with low acuity symptoms, as reflected in a new study in published in Pediatrics. Researchers at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, MO and Children’s Hospital Association in Overland Park, KS looked at 5.9 million ED and urgent care visits by Medicaid-covered children between 2010 and 2012. …

Despite Poor Comparisons vs Urgent Care, Hedge Fund Gambles on Freestanding ERs

Patients, politicians, and insurers have been united in complaining that freestanding emergency rooms don’t offer sufficient transparency when it comes to billing practices, but that hasn’t stopped hedge-fund guru Steven Cohen from gobbling up 5% of First Choice Emergency Rooms parent company Adeptus Health. The backlash against freestanding ERs has coincided with a growing awareness that urgent care is a viable, more accessible, and less expensive option for many patients. A study by Anthem Blue …

UnitedHealthcare Tries to Cut Costs with ‘Free’ Primary Care

UnitedHealthcare (UHC) is testing a no-cost primary care model to see if it equates to greater use of preventive care and, ultimately, lower costs for the company. It farmed out the program to Harken Health, which gives members unlimited no-fee access to primary care services and a 24-hour helpline, a personal health coach, psychological counseling, and classes in fitness and nutrition. Access is limited at this point, however, as Harken has just six clinics in …

‘Rampant’ Medicare Overbilling Highlights Need for Cost-Efficient Care

Medicare was overbilled by 12.1% in 2015, thanks to improper fee-for-service reimbursements in 21 states, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). That’s up from 8.6% just five years ago, making it one of the highest error rates in history. Louisiana was the worst offender, with an overbilling average of 19.4%—equating to over $1.2 billion in excess fees. Texas and Georgia also showed over a billion dollars in overcharges to Medicare last …

San Diego Drowning in Flood of Nonemergent ED Visits

More than half of visits to emergency rooms in California’s San Diego County hospitals between 2004 and 2014 were for complaints that were nonemergent, according to the county Health and Human Services Agency there. Overall volume swelled by 40% over that time, despite population growth of just 7% in the nation’s eighth largest city. The problem has gotten so bad that civic leaders staged a media blitz, imploring residents through newspapers and television news to …

Grocers Follow Urgent Care’s Lead with Nutritional Counseling

A handful of retail clinics are stealing a page from the urgent care playbook by diversifying services they offer to customers. The Kroger grocery store chain is testing out nutritional counseling in select stores with Little Clinic locations in four states. Urgent care clinics from California to New Jersey have had success employing registered dieticians and nutritionists for years, providing guidance for patients on food plans, food labels, food allergies, and the like. In addition …

New Report Sees Urgent Care Market Growing to $30.5 Billion by 2020

Add Transparency Market Research to the growing list of research organizations that see major growth continuing in the global urgent care market. Using 2013’s figure of $23.5 billion as a baseline, the report projects 30% growth by 2020—making for a market value of $30.5. Urgent Care Centers Market—Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2014–2020 cites the growing ranks of senior citizens and concerns over finding cost-effective care, combined with traditional urgent care …

Sentara Jumps into the Urgent Care Patient Experience Data Pool

Hospital systems have been tracking patient experiences for decades. Now one of them is extending that practice to its own urgent care centers; Sentara Healthcare is thought to be the first organization in the country to post aggregate patient survey ratings for urgent care centers online. National Research Corporation reached out to 40,000 patients within 1 to 3 days of a Sentara urgent care visit over the past year, asking them to rate their experience …

In New York, No More ‘Writing’ Prescriptions

Use a prescription pad in New York, go to jail—potentially, anyway, as the state becomes only the second state to require electronic prescribing and the first to establish penalties, which include fines, loss of license, and even jail time, for noncompliance. Paper and telephone prescriptions will be exempted for emergency situations, however. Proponents reason that e-prescribing is a big step toward eliminating prescribing errors and long wait times at the pharmacy, and that it reduces …