Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Can Cost Control Be Profitable for New-Model Insurers?

Runaway healthcare spending that amounts to 17.5% of the U.S. economy is inspiring some entrepreneurial insurers to launch new models aimed at bridging the gap between patients and health systems—instead of creating friction between those two interdependent parties, which some claim traditional insurers are doing. One, ZOOM+, is headed by a physician and owns its own neighborhood medical clinics. Another, Clover Health, raised $135 million in venture capital to build a company that sells only …

Urgent Care Staffing Provider Now in Envision Healthcare’s Fold

Envision Healthcare Holdings, Inc. has reached an agreement to buy physician-owned Emergency Physicians Medical Group (EPMG), which staffs 37 urgent care centers and various hospital departments in six states. All told, EPMG’s 500 clinicians manage nearly a million patient encounters annually. Envision expects EPMG will contribute approximately $140 million in net revenue annually. EPMG also operates community paramedicine programs and provides telemedicine services in urgent care and postacute care operations.

Mixed Marriage: Urgent Care Partners with Realtor to Spur Growth

American CareSource Holdings, Inc., parent company of the GoNow Doctors urgent care and primary care chain, has entered into an arrangement with a real estate firm to develop up to 10 new locations over the next year. Harbert Realty Services will be the default real estate developer, broker, and construction manager for the new sites in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida. Harbert will finance the upfront cost for the properties, including land acquisition and …

CDC Tries to Put the Brakes on Runaway Opioid Use

Up to 20% of patients presenting with noncancer pain walk out of physician offices with a prescription for an opioid. Too many of them become addicts or abuse prescription painkillers, sometimes with deadly results. With its expectation that encounters will be a one-off, urgent care is an especially appealing target for those looking for a quick fix. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants all prescribers to think long and hard before …

McKesson Leaving the Small-Practice EHR Business

McKesson is getting out of the business of providing electronic health record and practice management products to small physician practices by virtue of selling those product lines to e-MDs. Urgent care providers have been among the 35,000 customers, which average 1.5 physicians per practice, relying on those services. There is no timeline for the deal to be completed, though e-MDs says there will be “some time limit” to how long it will support the McKesson …

Are Quality Assessments Worth the Cost?

Tracking and reporting quality measures cost four specialties—including primary care, cardiology, orthopedics, and “multispecialty”—$15.4 billion annually, according to a new study published in Health Affairs. One concern voiced by the authors is that standardization of quality measures is sorely lacking so, in effect, such measures may have little meaning to begin with. The data are based on surveys of 250 practices from each of the selected specialties. On average, physicians spend 2.6 hours per week …

Doctors Urge Florida to Reverse Course and Squelch Aetna–Humana Merger

Florida’s insurance regulators have already given their blessing, but three physician groups are asking the state’s attorney general to put the kibosh on the proposed merger between Aetna Inc. and Humana, Inc. The American Medical Association, Florida Medical Association, and Florida Osteopathic Medical Association all say the merger would reduce competition to such an extent that healthcare access, quality, and affordability would suffer across the state. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation approved the deal …

CDC Warned Us—Now the Late Season Flu Spike Is Here

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s warnings that the 2015–2016 might end up being late, and not just light, are coming to fruition from coast to coast—with deadly consequences for some. New data highlight the need for urgent care providers to continue pushing flu shots and to be prepared for more patients with flu-like symptoms. Current flu activity has been called “widespread” in 37 states, with physician visits for flu-like symptoms continuing to rise; …

ChoiceOne Teams with Gwinnett Medical in Georgia

ChoiceOne Urgent Care is joining Gwinnett Medical Center to bring a new network of urgent care facilities to Gwinnett County, Georgia residents. In addition to standard urgent care, they will offer occupational medicine, vaccinations, sports physicals, and lab services in order to give patients immediate options short of a visit to the emergency room. ChoiceOne says they will also focus on continuity of care by partnering with Gwinnett Medical primary care providers and specialists, even …

Are Educated Citizens More Likely to Become Urgent Care Patients?

Urgent care clinicians and owners are ratcheting up efforts to enlighten their potential patient base on the benefits and value of urgent care. Local media outlets have been awash recently in physician-penned articles explaining what presenting complaints can be managed in the urgent care setting vs those that truly need the resources of an emergency room. Now some operators are taking their message to the streets by conducting live patient education seminars. Case in point: …