Practice Management
Neither company has confirmed it, but The Wall Street Journal reports that CVS Health has offered to buy Aetna in a deal that could have vast implications in the retail health and insurance marketplaces. The combined company would have much stronger bargaining power when negotiating deals with health systems, payers, and pharmaceutical companies, than either company does alone. For starters, as the WSJ article points out, CVS’s pharmacy benefit management arm would see “a huge …
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Urgent message: Opioid abuse, addiction, and resultant deaths have drawn the attention of both the medical community and legislative bodies from the local health department to the White House. Urgent care is a frequent destination for addicts trying to secure drugs illicitly—but it also has the potential to be the first stop on the road to recovery. Jason M. Ramos and Robert S. Crausman, MD, MMS Case Presentation Manny is a middle-aged white male who …
Read MoreUrgent message: Urgent care centers must use all reasonable efforts to comply with informed-consent and consent-to-minors laws. This should include consulting with legal counsel on the specific laws of the state and developing protocols to shield the center from possible litigation. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and is Practice Management Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Introduction Medical practices like urgent care centers …
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Two major players in urgent care and occupational medicine are being joined together by their respective ownerships. Select Medical Holdings Corporation and Dignity Health have agreed on a definitive agreement to combine Concentra Group Holdings, LLC, an occupational medicine and urgent care service provider, with U.S. HealthWorks, Inc., which offers services in the same sectors. There is some geographical overlap, such as in the Milwaukee and Nashville markets, but locations are more complementary than they …
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Urgent care centers in hurricane-affected areas have probably gotten into the habit of looking for sudden respiratory ailments and signs of illness related to consumption of tainted water or food. However, the vast numbers of relief workers and volunteers who flocked to help residents affected by the recent storms are now returning home, where providers may not have such issues at the top of their minds. Recognizing that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention …
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The ink is barely dry on the arrest warrant for a Florida man accused of practicing medicine without a license, but now another similar story has popped up in New Jersey. Unlike the Florida case, the accused was not the proprietor of the urgent care center where he worked but an employee. Law enforcement officials say he’s actually a former physician whose medical license was suspended in 2003 for aggravated drug possession. Authorities are confident …
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It’s common for patients complaining of fatigue, fever, stiff joints, and overall body aches and malaise to seek treatment in an urgent care center. Depending on the season and what examination reveals—a telltale bullseye rash, for example—the clinician might suspect Lyme disease and be inclined to suggest the patient see another provider for testing and treatment. Even if they’re able to test on site, the patient would have to wait several days for the results …
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If you read this newsletter and JUCM, you know the Merit-based Incentive Payment Systems (MIPS) offers a few options in an attempt to encourage participation and allow providers, essentially, to customize their participation to suit their practice. That includes when they start participating, within some limits. And if you read any news sources at all, you know there are more than a few wrinkles in the rollout. With that in mind, here are a few …
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Despite efforts to teach patients when they really need to go to the emergency room vs the urgent care center or other settings, TennCare reports that its members have continued to head straight to the ED for relatively minor complaints—to the tune of $87.9 million in fiscal year 2017. That’s an increase of $3 million over the previous year. Claims data released by the state show too many use the less convenient, costlier ED for …
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 Urgent Message: As some municipalities have considered placing—or have already placed—restrictions on the opening of new urgent care centers in their communities, urgent care developers should understand the legality and business impact of such local moratoria. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Practice Velocity, LLC and is Practice Management Editor for The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. Recently, after much consideration, the Manhattan Beach (CA) City Council rejected a …
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