Practice Management
One Medical is under fire for failing to prioritize some patients who had symptoms that should have received immediate attention. The crux of the problem is that the virtual and in-person primary care provider—now owned by Amazon as a result of a $3.9 billion deal from February 2023—routes patients to a call center that is staffed in part by contractors with limited training, according to the Washington Post. The news outlet cites leaked documents that …
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The Joint Commission recently announced a new telehealth accreditation program (TEL) applicable to eligible hospitals and ambulatory care providers, including urgent cares. The TEL program requirements will be released this month with formal applications opening on July 1, 2024. New telehealth-specific requirements include: streamlined emergency management to address remote care rather than in a physical building; new standards for telehealth provider and patient education about the use of telehealth platforms and devices; and new standards …
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On a recent conference call, Optum notified some employees that its virtual care division will cease operations in July, according to Becker’s Health IT. Optum Virtual Care launched in 2021 and covers all 50 states. At UnitedHealth’s investor conference in November, Optum’s CEO implied that virtual care is a crowded market, and more recently, employees on social media have reported a significant workforce reduction at Optum, ranging from nurse case managers to senior director and …
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Researchers found the use of video telemedicine to conduct consultations for acutely ill children in rural and community emergency departments (EDs) does not reduce medication errors when compared to consultations done by telephone, as presented in JAMA Network Open. A randomized trial across 15 community and rural EDs that examined 696 cases of acutely ill children found no statistically significant differences in physician-related medication errors between cases leveraging telephone consultations when compared to cases leveraging …
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In New Jersey, Hackensack Meridian Health is now offering its HMH Urgent Care, which integrates behavioral health with same-day urgent care and telemedicine visits. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, it’s the first urgent care that simultaneously provides both immediate medical care and services for psychiatric conditions as part of a strategy to reduce emergency department visits. The HMH Urgent Care suite includes short-term outpatient care for those 16 years and older to address anxiety, depression, mood …
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According to a JAMA study, providers are increasingly billing patient-initiated text messages as “telemedicine.” Not to be confused with synchronous video visits, more than 100,000 such text-message charges were billed per month in 2022, and monthly volume increased 40% from Q4 of 2021 to Q4 of 2022. That’s the same comparison period in which urgent care visits were down significantly as the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emerged. Top UC diagnoses: “What really stands out are the top …
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A recent JAMA Network Open Viewpoint article explored the frustrations resulting from the expiration of temporary regulatory changes that were implemented by almost all states to allow physicians to provide telehealth across state lines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the end of the public health emergency, many licensing waivers ended as well. Some argue that licensure should remain under control of the state while others advocate for a single federal license or full …
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Patients were more willing to use telehealth than ever in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data from a report published by McKinsey & Company, telehealth claims grew 7,800% between February 2020 and April 2020. They dropped precipitously just a couple of months later, but have since plateaued. What could be of interest to urgent care operators who are considering telehealth as a service option, especially as we’re in the midst of …
Read MoreSome urgent care insiders view telemedicine as a natural fit for our industry—an opportunity to give patients even more convenient access to competent healthcare providers, thereby increasing engagement and resulting in more care for more patients. Others just don’t see how it would be applicable, or fear that remote visits could result in overprescribing (especially for antibiotics and pain medications). Judging from data just released through the Urgent Care Associations 2021 Summer Benchmarking Report, widespread …
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Telemedicine has been hyped as a savior for both patients with poor access to quality local healthcare and operators who want to increase revenue by providing that care. Business has not exactly been booming for most, however, possibly due to lack of awareness among the public or slow adoption by payers. As competition for patients heats up among various segments of the provider landscape, however, there may be a bigger push to capture patients who …
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