Practice Management
Urgent message: Sports physicals offered by an urgent care center can be a “win” for both the center and the community. The community gets a flexible source for a time-critical service and the center gets another way to attract new and repeat business. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc Practice Velocity Schools, camps, inter-league and club sports programs typically require a pre-participation physical examination to evaluate a participant’s general health, fitness level, risk of injury and …
Read MoreThese data from the 2012 Urgent Care Industry Benchmarking Study are based on a sample of 1,732 urgent care centers; 95.2% of the respondents were UCA members. Among other criteria, the study was limited to centers that have a licensed provider onsite at all times; have two or more exam rooms; typically are open 7 days/week, 4 hours/day, at least 3,000 hours/year; and treat patients of all ages (unless specifically a pediatric urgent care).
Read MoreQ. Is there a defined set of diagnosis codes for urgent care services and is there a diagnosis code that indicates the services were urgent? A. All facilities use the same set of ICD-9 codes to report the patient’s diagnosis. There are no diagnosis codes to represent urgent care services, but there are certain procedure codes you can use to indicate that services were rendered in an urgent care clinic and also procedure codes to …
Read MoreJOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP with ANDREW SNIEGOWSKI, RN, JD CANDIDATE 2014 Over the last 6 years I have written a number of articles on medical malpractice in urgent care medicine. The good news is that I am seeing fewer cases despite the fact that there are more urgent care centers and more patient visits. The bad news is that I am still seeing the same fact patterns time and again. Failure to diagnose …
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Urgent message: Grassroots marketing tactics can be effective in engaging a center’s providers and staff with the communities they serve while also educating prospective patients about the availability of urgent care. Introduction This roundtable focuses on grassroots marketing for urgent care centers, which differs from traditional advertising in that it involves more interaction with prospective patients and requires a hands-on approach to building relationships and spurring word-of-mouth in the community. The panel of experts we’ve …
Read MoreThese data from the 2012 Urgent Care Industry Benchmarking Study are based on a sample of 1,732 urgent care centers; 95.2% of the respondents were UCA members. Among other criteria, the study was limited to centers that have a licensed provider onsite at all times; have two or more exam rooms; typically are open 7 days/week, 4 hours/day, at least 3,000 hours/year; and treat patients of all ages (unless specifically a pediatric urgent care).
Read MoreQ. I am reviewing documentation for a freestanding urgent care center that performs pulse oximetry on every patient they see, regardless of the reason. Is this typical? In some cases, they are billing the case rate code, S9083. Please let me know if this is standard operating procedure. A.Medicare will allow payment for pulse oximetry under two conditions: 1) when it is linked to an appropriate diagnosis code; and 2) if it considered as being …
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JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP He watched her walk through the door at the end of a long, busy day. She was an attractive, well dressed, athletic-looking young lady with a warm smile, the kind of girl he’d want his teenage son to date someday. “Slam dunk,” he thought. “This will be a quick visit and I’ll still get out on time.” The front office team registered her quickly. He suspected that they, too, …
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Urgent message: FSEDs have a role to play in our health care system but it’s not to supplant urgent care centers. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Introduction Freestanding emergency departments (FSEDs) are walk-in medical facilities—structurally separate and distinct from a hospital—that hold themselves out to provide emergency care to the general public. While they claim many similarities to hospital EDs—capabilities to diagnose and stabilize cardiac arrest, stroke symptoms, breathing problems and trauma—there are also …
Read MoreThese data from the 2012 Urgent Care Industry Benchmarking Study are based on a sample of 1,732 urgent care centers; 95.2% of the respondents were UCA members. Among other criteria, the study was limited to centers that have a licensed provider onsite at all times; have two or more exam rooms; typically are open 7 days/week, 4 hours/day, at least 3,000 hours/year; and treat patients of all ages (unless specifically a pediatric urgent care).
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