Friday, August 25, 2006
USA Today on retail health clinics
[Julie Schmit, "Could walk-in retail clinics help slow rising health costs?," USA TODAY, 24 August 2006.]
Consumer-driven innovation in health care delivery is gaining steam, as this recent article from USA Today indicates:
The clinics, about 150 nationwide, provide convenient but limited service at a low cost. They treat common ailments only — such as strep throat, ear infections and allergies — and offer an alternative to packed doctors' offices and pricey emergency rooms.
While the clinics vary by company, most treat 25 to 40 medical conditions and charge $45 to $75 a visit. MinuteClinic pioneered the industry in 2000. It has the most clinics, 87, and is being bought by CVS.
HealthPartners, a Minnesota-based health maintenance organization, analyzed two years of MinuteClinic claims data and found total costs about 25% less for MinuteClinic treatments compared with those done at doctors' offices or urgent-care clinics.
The clinics save even more if they keep patients out of emergency rooms, which can cost hundreds of dollars per visit, and which frequently treat the uninsured.
Most clinics do or will take insurance, are walk-in and are open evenings and weekends. They advertise short waits and 15-minute exams, and some give out pagers so clients can shop while waiting. Prices are posted — at MinuteClinic, on an electronic sign, as in a fast-food restaurant.
The retail clinic threat is already sparking change. Several health care providers, including AtlantiCare, the biggest in southeastern New Jersey, are opening their own limited-service clinics in stores.
The American Academy of Family Physicians recently encouraged its 94,000 doctors to expand office hours and same-day appointments. “Hopefully, we'll be able to compete,” says Larry Fields, a physician and head of the AAFP.
[Devon Herrick, "The Changing Face of Health Care," The Salina Journal, 3 July 2006.]
Consumer-driven innovation in health care delivery is gaining steam, as this recent article from USA Today indicates:
The clinics, about 150 nationwide, provide convenient but limited service at a low cost. They treat common ailments only — such as strep throat, ear infections and allergies — and offer an alternative to packed doctors' offices and pricey emergency rooms.
While the clinics vary by company, most treat 25 to 40 medical conditions and charge $45 to $75 a visit. MinuteClinic pioneered the industry in 2000. It has the most clinics, 87, and is being bought by CVS.
HealthPartners, a Minnesota-based health maintenance organization, analyzed two years of MinuteClinic claims data and found total costs about 25% less for MinuteClinic treatments compared with those done at doctors' offices or urgent-care clinics.
The clinics save even more if they keep patients out of emergency rooms, which can cost hundreds of dollars per visit, and which frequently treat the uninsured.
Most clinics do or will take insurance, are walk-in and are open evenings and weekends. They advertise short waits and 15-minute exams, and some give out pagers so clients can shop while waiting. Prices are posted — at MinuteClinic, on an electronic sign, as in a fast-food restaurant.
The retail clinic threat is already sparking change. Several health care providers, including AtlantiCare, the biggest in southeastern New Jersey, are opening their own limited-service clinics in stores.
The American Academy of Family Physicians recently encouraged its 94,000 doctors to expand office hours and same-day appointments. “Hopefully, we'll be able to compete,” says Larry Fields, a physician and head of the AAFP.
[Devon Herrick, "The Changing Face of Health Care," The Salina Journal, 3 July 2006.]
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