Practice Management
Alan A. Ayers, MBA, is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: When competing in crowded, heavily saturated urgent care markets, employing strategic real estate tactics in site selection can give your urgent care center an edge over the competition. Urgent care is a retail business, so site selection is critical in getting patients through the door. Most owner-operators understand the …
Read MoreThe first time I wrote this column was for the inaugural issue of JUCM in October 2006. Today I could reflect on how much has changed around us, yet how much has stayed the same, but you know…no one really cares about what’s happened since 2006. What we really care about is today, and tomorrow. What’s happening right NOW, and what’s going to happen NEXT. And that’s the inspiration for the 2020 Convention. Yep, I’m …
Read MoreIt’s that time of year again. The American Medical Association has implemented the 2020 Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code set. This year we have 394 changes: 248 additions, 71 deletions, and 75 revisions. All changes took effect on January 1. While the impact to urgent care is minor, several items bear highlighting Health Behavior Assessment and Intervention The codes in the Health Behavior Assessment and Intervention section are used to report services provided to improve …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: Integration of healthcare delivery with mobile technology is leading more urgent care operators to embrace digital queuing systems that, given their ability to positively impact patient wait times, offer the promise of elevating the patient experience—and a distinct competitive advantage. In a perfect world, every patient who showed …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: Though the topic of OSHA doesn’t often come up in the context of urgent care facilities themselves, operators are nevertheless required to have a thorough understanding of its standards and guidelines towards ensuring their facilities are in compliance, and that the health and safety of employees, patients, and …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer at Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: A business plan should never be a formality to meet bank or investor requirements. Rather, it should represent a rigorous testing of all your analyses and assumptions around a business decision. Because, sometimes, the “best” outcome from diligent business planning just might be the decision to forego the opportunity …
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Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: As the country’s urgent care markets become increasingly saturated, the forward-thinking operator will have a strategic patient-retention strategy ready when a competitor inevitably opens up shop in their community. As the urgent care market continues its yearly growth of around 8%, per the Urgent Care Association’s 2018 Benchmarking …
Read MoreIf you haven’t noticed, it’s flu season. In fact, it’s been flu season longer than usual for this point compared with past years, thanks to an unexpectedly early arrival. With months to go, though, there’s still time for patients who have not been immunized to reap the benefits of getting a flu shot. This is not to say that influenza is the only immunization patients need. With reports of measles also beginning to climb as …
Read MoreAlan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Urgent Care and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Urgent message: Expedited Partner Therapy enables a provider, when treating a patient for a sexually transmitted infection, to give a second prescription for the patient’s partner without having to examine the partner. Introduction Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT) is the clinical practice of treating the sex partners of patients diagnosed with …
Read MoreOn November 1, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) confirmed with the final rule for 2020 that they have accepted all of the American Medical Associations (AMA) recommendations for coding of office and outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) services starting in 2021. This will offer some documentation relief for providers who have been held to dated 1995 and 1997 guidelines that were written before the use of electronic medical records. However, these …
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