Becker's Healthcare April 9, 2018
Primary care physicians saw office visits fall 18 percent from 2012 to 2016, according to Health Care Cost Institute data, despite an incline in specialist visits. The New York Times reports new threats from retailer and insurer mega-mergers are pushing primary care clinics “closer to extinction.”
Here are five takeaways from the report.
1. There are roughly 12,000 retail clinics and urgent care centers in the U.S., according to Merchant Medicine data cited by the NYT. Patients are choosing these clinics for simple health needs more often than before, where a nurse practitioner or physician assistant can offer cheaper care than may be administered in a physician’s office.
2. These types of clinics stand to become even more popular as...
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