BECAUSE IF YOU'RE ECONOMICALLY MARGINAL YOU ONLY GET TREATED WHEN YOU'RE ACTUALLY ILL:

Wal-Mart's Entrance Into Health Care Is Great News for American Consumers (Sally Pipes, 11/28/11, Forbes)

Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and RAND Institute researcher, examined the comparative quality of treatment at retail clinics in a 2009 study for Annals of Internal Medicine.

The results? "We're not seeing any differences in the quality of care that's provided by retail clinics compared to doctors' offices and emergency departments," Mehrotra told the American College of Physicians.

It's no wonder that patient satisfaction with retail clinics is over 90%.

Concerns about retail clinics' quality might just serve as cover for doctors' opposition to new competition. But the facts indicate that doctors shouldn't worry about losing patients.

Retail clinics largely service people who don't have regular healthcare providers. A 2008 study in Health Affairs found that nearly two-thirds of visitors to retail clinics had no primary care physician.

The same study concluded that retail clinics were likely to provide only basic services. According to the report, "About 90% of the visits to retail clinics were for 10 simple acute conditions and preventive care: upper respiratory infections, sinusitis, bronchitis, sore throat, immunizations, inner ear infections, swimmers ear, conjunctivitis, urinary tract infections, and either a screening test or a blood test."

Posted by oj at November 29, 2011 6:24 AM
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