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Reducing health care costs and addressing the issue of primary care physician shortage are two issues at the forefront of the health policy discussion. 
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Walk-in clinics gaining popularity
eMedToday's insight:
"Nontraditional healthcare sites such as urgent care centers and retail clinics are gaining popularity with consumers looking to avoid the long waits and high prices of the doctor's office or emergency department"
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Health care overhaul will spur clinic growth
eMedToday's insight:
Take away:
"Accenture's report indicates this growing trend is projected to drive $800 million in cost savings by 2015 and will add capacity for 10.8 million patient visits per year. An improvement in access may be especially important with no real solution in sight to a projected nationwide primary care physician shortage".
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Health Populi's Hot Points: Health citizens with a strong primary care backbone, such as those in Europe like Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, have better health outcomes than patients in the U.S.
eMedToday's insight:
Summary
" Health citizens with a strong primary care backbone, such as those in Europe like Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, have better health outcomes than patients in the U.S. Retail clinics provide additional “bone structure” for the undersupplied American primary care infrastructure"
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I attended a meeting several weeks ago in Downtown Los Angeles where the topic of discussion mirrored very closely what was to be the topic of this month's column: retail health clinics. The panelists appeared well informed ...
eMedToday's insight:
This article is good discussion on the role of health clinics.
Key Point:
"Retail health care clinics also provide two very important aspects that are lacking in our current system: convenience and a patient-oriented model of delivery. Those of us who have primary care physicians know all too well that no matter how kind, compassionate and excellent our physician might be, his or her model is not patient-oriented in the same way a retail clinic is designed to be."
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ANA supports the delivery of primary care and other health care services by nurse practitioners (NPs) in retail-based health clinics. Peer-reviewed studies continue to add evidence confirming that NPs offer high quality care in ...
eMedToday's insight:
NP are the focal point for health clinics
"Peer-reviewed studies continue to add evidence confirming that NPs offer high quality care in the primary care setting. In addition to their education and expertise in diagnosis and treatment, NPs’ proficiency in providing health education and prevention services makes them skilled managers and service providers in retail-based clinics. Retail-based clinics provide an additional innovative entry point for patients to access affordable, high-quality health care, thus helping to address some of the system’s more pressing problems"
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Insider Monkey (blog)
eMedToday's insight:
Interesting the major growth opportunity in retail health. "CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE:CVS) has the largest and fastest-growing retail clinic business in the United States, Minute Clinic. Minute Clinic offers the value of convenience for patients. While around 30 million Americans are expected to gain certain healthcare coverage over the next few years, Minute Clinic will continue to be a key growth driver for CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE:CVS) where the management is planning to add 150 new clinics in 2013 and reach over 1,500 clinics by 2017."
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AARP News
eMedToday's insight:
The convenience of health clincis is one of the key factors to their acceptance
" According to a 2009 Rand Corp. study, about one-third of Americans live within a 10-minute drive of a retail clinic"
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Contrary to conventional thinking, retail clinics are being used more by people with higher incomes than those with lower incomes finds a recent study by Kalorama Information. In a survey of 2,000 adults on consumer ...
eMedToday's insight:
Interesting fact
"In a survey of 2,000 adults on consumer attitudes about retail clinics, Kalorama, a publisher of market research reports, found that 59 percent of survey participants who said they used retail clinics had a household income of more than $50,000, while only 16 percent had a household income of under $25,000"
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A new pilot program announced by the UC San Diego Health System will explore how telemedicine can potentially address and mitigate overcrowding and patient wait times in the emergency room.
eMedToday's insight:
the result will more than not support the conclusion that telemedicine will reduce ER crowding.
This supports the conclusion of having convenient care centers with telemedicine capability
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New health clinic set in Keizer
eMedToday's insight:
This is the traditional way to set up a clinic: 10,000 square feet and 10 doctors.
Which is fine if the budget is available. The other way is with 40 square feet and telemedicine.
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Convenient care clinics (CCCs) are health care clinics located in retail stores, supermarkets and pharmacies that treat uncomplicated minor illnesses and provide preventative health care services. They are sometimes called "retail clinics," "retail-based clinics," "walk-in medical clinics," or "nurse-in-a-box." CCCs are usually staffed by nurse practitioners (NPs) or physician assistants (PAs). Some CCCs, however, are staffed by physicians. Currently, there are over 1,350 CCCs located throughout the United States.[1] Most CCCs are open seven days a week – twelve hours a day during the workweek and eight hours a day on the weekend.[2] Because CCCs are such a new development, only a small percentage of Americans have received health care in a CCC setting.[3] It is estimated, however, that the number of CCCs will increase dramatically in the near future.[4]
eMedToday's insight:
extremely good overview of the industry
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This week at CES we got to take a tour of the new HealthSpot Station, a small room the size of a Porta John filled with diagnostic tools, cameras, and scre
eMedToday's insight:
This is good video of how Health Spot works
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Healthcare will remain a vibrant—but highly competitive—sector for private equity investment in 2013. Shaping a value-creation plan begins with a thorough due diligence process that explores five critical areas.
eMedToday's insight:
Here it is
"The second hot opportunity for private equity investment has been the retail health category, spanning traditional specialties like dental clinics and urgent-care facilities, as well as emerging areas from fertility to cosmetic surger"
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Letter: Health clinic aids uninsured
eMedToday's insight:
Sometimes not appreciated is the fact that with retail health clinics beging signifcantly cheaper that hospitals, that a huge target market for are the uninsured.
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Los Gatos old-school urgent care clinic was opened by a doctor and his advertising-executive son; some believe urgent care is the future but will it reduce health costs as Obamacare takes hold?
eMedToday's insight:
This a story on one clinic
MTD's curator insight,
June 18, 2013 4:32 AM
A neat example of major societal, economic and cultural change brought into focus by simple changes in practice. In healthcare, a principal challenge has always been that there is a minimum cost of good care - you can only pare costs down so much before you run unacceptable risks for people and business models. But what if there was a better way to integrate information, oversee care, prescribe sensitively and coordinate the activity of medical experts? A doc in a box has been (literally) the dream of science fiction writers; this isn't that, obviously - but it's a significant change to the current pattern that advocates hugely expensive, infrastructure heavy organisations driving care. Do we need hospitals? Are they, quite simply, unnecessary - if you do the caring right in a different and more flexible, technology driven, light and flexible way?
Still not convinced that this is an argument against hospitals and, here, the NHS; but it's a fantastic case for showing that not only must we cut costs, but we could do so without necessarily destroying care in its truest and broadest sense.
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The study called the U.S. rate of primary care doctor production "abysmal." Many health centers in South L.A. can't afford a doctor, which is one reason why so much care falls to nurses and physician assistants.
eMedToday's insight:
The shortage of primary care doctors drive the market for retail health clinics.
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In addition to its in-store clinics, Walgreens runs about 350 health clinics at worksites, which are paid for by employers. The retailer also has a program to link patients leaving hospitals with Take Care Clinics and Walgreens ...
eMedToday's insight:
This is big deal, moving into treatment of chronic diseases.
"It’s not just sore throats and flu shots anymore. Walgreens today became the first retail store chain to expand its health care services to include diagnosing and treating patients for chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes and high cholesterol."
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As wait times to see a doctor for simple problems like sinusitis and urinary tract infection lengthen, more and more Americans are turning to retail health clinics—walk-in medical facilities located in pharmacies, grocery stores, ...
eMedToday's insight:
The numbers are impressive
" The number of visits to such clinics quadrupled from 1.48 million in 2007 to 5.97 million in 2009, according to a study published in the journal Health Affairs, and topped 10 million last year. Convenience is driving this migration to retail health clinics,"
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Accenture forecasts fast retail clinic growth
eMedToday's insight:
The number of health clinics to double in 2015.
One issue:
"But Safavi said clinic operators are conscious of that issue and are investing in technology that allows them to share records. He also said he has seen no real evidence that these clinics present a risk to the quality of a patient's care. "I think, generally speaking, the market place benefits from more choices at lower costs," he said."
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eMedToday's insight:
interesting fact
"According to the ATA, there are currently 200 telemedicine networks operating in the United States using more than 3,500 sites. The association estimates that 50% of U.S. hospital networks now use some form of telemedicine and that in 2011, the Veterans Health Administration alone delivered 300,000 remote consultations for military veterans"
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The industry's Convenient Care Association estimates nationwide there are now more than 1,400 health clinics inside retail chain stores, double the number from six years ago. Industry leader CVS Caremark Corp.
eMedToday's insight:
key point
"When you add payment reform and physician shortages to the mix, an environment is being created where retail chains can swiftly step in to offer an alternative to slow-moving healthcare systems. The retail chains offer a low-cost alternative to traditional office-based medicine because many of the services are being delivered by licensed pharmacists or nurse practitioners. “It’s a ball the medical profession dropped, and I don’t think they’ll get their ball back,” said Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton University economist. “Regular physicians were not responsive enough.”
And 90% of costs of retail clinics is being paid by insurance companies
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From
thehill
MedPage Today ObamaCare to double retail health clinics, analysis predicts The Hill (blog) "Although primary care physicians and hospitals once regarded retail clinics as a business threat, in a post-reform landscape, they are viewed as critical to...
eMedToday's insight:
2 facts:
1. Global consulting firm Accenture predicted that the number of walk-in medical facilities located in retail stores will rise to nearly 3,000 by 2015. The clinics are expected to account for 10 percent of non-primary care outpatient visits within three years.
2. According to the report, new retail-based clinics will add capacity for 10.8 million patient visits per year by 2015. The trend is expected to drive about $800 million in savings, since clinics cost less than other medical venues.
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CVS Caremark, the U.S.'s second-largest drug retailer, has expanded its retail health-care clinic footprint to 650 in the last five years and plans to add another 350 by 2016. Through MinuteClinics...
eMedToday's insight:
Retail clinics should explode because of new changes in health laws
This helps increase accessibility to primary health care at lower cost. Demand for primary health care is expected to sharply increase when 32 million more Americans will obtain health insurance from 2014 through health-care reforms.
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Could consumers using kiosks to speak remotely with physicians be the future of healthcare - or at least one affordable component? The Healthspot Station is an enclosed kiosk equipped with a teleco...
eMedToday's insight:
Summary strategy
" Eventually, the company wants to bring these tiny health clinics to a local Walgreens, where users can get treated and walk out with an e-prescription right into the pharmacy. Longer term goals may bring tele-doctors to impoverished nations.
HealthSpot plans on selling stations to hospitals and retail outlets for around $10K to $15K, with a $950-a-month prescription. Properties get a cut of every visit. On the patient side, HealthSpot boasts cheaper rates of around $60-$80 a visit (urgent care visits can be a few hundred dollars). The company is currently navigating the state-by-state insurance system to see how providers can cover telemedicine and e-prescriptions"
Extremely cost effective way to deploy primary health care. The company spend over USD $ 6 million and over 1 year in developing a user friendly telemedicine platform.
Health Spot would be perfect solution for Asia where disbursed health care is considered the next big thing over the next 5 years
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Interesting trend to see retail health clinics treat acute conditons
"CFO-funded researcher Ateev Mehrotra, M.D., conducted a study on the impact of retail clinics on overall utilization of care. In an articlepublished in the November 2011 issue of American Journal of Managed Care, Mehrotra found that retail clinic use for those with acute conditions increased tenfold from 2007 to 2009."