Evolving Urgent Care Industry Dynamics

Urgent Care is facing two ongoing challenges. These are fee stagnation and acuity degradation, both feeding each other.

The Ongoing Challenges to Urgent Care

Low ball case rate contracts are being offered that disincentivize higher level care and eliminate compensation for X-rays, procedures and supports. Meanwhile, many providers at our centers lack the comfort level to evaluate and treat routine fractures, corneal foreign bodies, head trauma, and large lacerations, just to name a few.

This is a perfect storm for acuity degradation. This is not lost on the insurance carriers who have the data and are starting to say “all you do is triage”. Some carriers have even suggested “triage rate”contracts.

Adding to that, wage inflation and we have a serious margin compression problem.

What Can Urgent Care Centers Do?

There is a way out! I suggest developing an occupational medicine practice for your facility, which is a fee for service. X-rays, procedures, DME, and global fracture care are reimbursed. I suggest you provide these services for your urgent care patients also, even if on a case rate so as to not lose your Urgent Care patients to the local “orthopedic urgent care”.

How OccDocOne Can Help You

I have over 30 years of experience building a large Urgent Care/Occ Med hybrid network and I can tell you the pillar of our success has been provider performance. And for that, I have created a web-based tool, OccDocOne that can upgrade your provider’s performance immediately for both Occ Med and Urgent Care injury management.