by Marius Ged, on Sep 7, 2022 6:25:09 PM
Keep up with the latest urgent care industry updates from your revenue growth partner, Ged Lawyers. Here is an overview of the top news, insights, and growth tips for September 2022.
What's New in FL Urgent Care
1) MD Now Establishes New Headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens
Urgent care provider MDNow recently established a new headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens. This isn't a significant move from the company's previous headquarters in West Palm Beach, but the company, the largest urgent care operator in the state, will be expanding in size.
MDNow operates more than 60 facilities across Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Lee, and Manatee counties. Each clinic is physician-led, promising to treat each patient who comes within an hour.
Before MDNow can move into its new almost-19,000 square foot space, the property's owners, based in Miami and New York, plan to make upgrades, especially to the lobby.
The facility has been a popular property since Alchemy-ABR out of New York acquired it in 2016 for $30 million.
"We’ve maintained an almost 100 percent occupancy rate since we first acquired 4200-4400 Northcorp Parkway in 2016,” said Brian Ray, co-founder and managing partner of Alchemy-ABR Investment Partners.
Industry Updates
1) Virtual Visits and Online Registration Tools Increase Accessibility in Urgent Care Centers
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, urgent care has grown into a booming industry worth $38.5 billion and is expected to grow by 3.4 percent this year. Two of the factors driving this growth are virtual visits and online registration tools that simplify patient care.
The pandemic accelerated urgent care facilities' adoption of telemedicine. In 2019, only 29 percent of the more than 1,000 urgent care clinics used virtual consultations and online registration tools. Still, by mid-2020 - the height of the pandemic - 85 percent of clinics had adopted these tactics.
The increased accessibility of urgent care facilities may have also influenced oversaturated Emergency Departments.
According to a recent study, "Having an open urgent care center in a ZIP code reduced the total number of ED visits by residents in the ZIP code by 17.2%, due largely to decreases in visits for less emergent conditions."
2) The Impact of Using Temporary Physicians to Staff Your Urgent Care Facilities
As the popularity of urgent care clinics grows across the United States, many facilities are filling their staffing needs with one or more part-time physicians. Though 94 percent of clinics have at least one full-time physician on staff, these temporary or "locum tenens" physicians, can help facilities stay open later and during weekends. They can also relieve the burden on over-taxed physicians during busy times.
Urgent care temporary physicians are typically employed elsewhere, like in private practice or at hospitals. They may "moonlight" at urgent care clinics because of scheduling consistency and predictability. They may work consistently throughout the year, or may only temporarily be employed at the clinic during oversaturated parts of the year, like flu season.
These part-time physicians are hired in addition to physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners who also see many patients at urgent care and retail medicine clinics. Nearly 60 percent of urgent care clinics staff these non-physician healthcare practitioners.
Growing Your Practice
1) How to Protect Your Urgent Care Office from Ransomware
Fast Track Urgent Care recently reported that more than 258,411 individuals who visited their urgent care clinics across Florida had their protected healthcare information exposed. This personal data may or may not have been stolen by a ransomware attack on PracticeMax, the company's billing and practice management vendor.
The breach happened between April 17 and May 5, 2021. It took another 13 months for Fast Track Urgent Care to determine if patients' healthcare data had been viewed or potentially stolen, which it confirmed in August 2022.
How can urgent care facilities prevent a similar ransomware attack?
Several best practices suggested by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are as follows:
- Regularly run vulnerability scans to ensure any attack is as limited as possible.
- Keep offline and encrypted data backups and test them regularly.
- Patch and update your operating systems consistently.
- Report breaches to CISA to minimize impact.
2) Understanding the PIP Suit Process for Medical Providers
Drivers in Florida must buy $10,000 worth of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage. This insurance covers accident-related expenses, including medical treatment, regardless of which driver caused the accident.
Still, insurance companies may neglect PIP payments or underpay these claims. Though your urgent care may be left with costs that were not covered by PIP, you may lack the time or resources to pursue legal action.
Still, missing or underpaid claims limit your cash flow. If you partner with Ged Lawyers, we will perform a retrospective audit in which we index cases and use an algorithm to identify overdue benefits. Call us at (561) 867-4765 or toll-free at 844 - 4GEDLAW to schedule a consultation.
