Retail Health Clinics: Nuisance or Necessity?  

Category: Practice Management

As the ACA falls into place, the healthcare industry continues to look for solutions to anticipated problems.  One potential problem is the projected disparity between patients who will use their benefits under the ACA and the limited pool of primary care doctors who will treat them.  The growing shortage of primary care doctors, expected to reach 45,000 by 2020, may cause longer wait times or discourage care altogether. 

Retail health clinics, like the CVS Minute Clinics, are gaining momentum as the solution to this problem.  These clinics are attractive to patients for a variety of reasons.  First, they allow patients to see a clinician immediately rather than wait days, or even weeks, to see their PCP.  Additionally, the prices are transparent.  For the PCPs who are overloaded with patients, this new practice may be beneficial.  But ...