Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Are Alternative Payment Models Catching On?

There’s little evidence that emerging payment models (eg, concierge medicine, cash-only practices, and accountable care organizations [ACOs]) are gaining any serious traction in urgent care—but that doesn’t mean they’re not making headway elsewhere. ACOs, in particular, are growing in usage among physicians, according to the Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2017. Usage of cash-only and concierge models is also growing, albeit much more modestly, as the graph below shows. Data source: Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2017. …

Accountable Care Organizations, Where do Urgent Care Centers Fit?

JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Under the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will pioneer a number of new projects which affect the delivery of healthcare in the United States. Among these projects, the most ambitious is the proliferation of the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Other initiatives include pay-for-performance (P4P) and quality improvement agendas proffered by organizations responsible for accreditation, all focusing on clinical delivery pathways or “care paths.” The …