Budget Health Clinics to Impact Patient Volume, Not Debt

Retail-based health clinics could begin to see significant growth in 2008, says a health care services analyst who follows the major for-profit healthcare providers.

Ann Hynes of Leerink Swann told insideARM that the merger last March of drug store chains CVS with Caremark could lead large corporations to place CVS Caremark retail clinics, known as MinuteClinics, in their headquarters and at their large office complexes.  

“CVS will be offering to put these MinuteClinics in big headquarters,” said Hynes. “The benefit to corporations is that they can direct people there. (Their employees) won’t have to leave work to go to the doctor’s office.”

Proponents of retail-based health care clinics say they help alleviate long waits at doctors’ offices by offering non-appointment service at affordable prices, primarily because patients are seen by board-certified nurse practitioners rather than doctors. Visits to retail-based clinics average less than $100, Hynes said, compared with visits to a primary care physician, which cost between $150 and $200 for the uninsured.

If retail-based clinics experience significant growth in 2008, Hynes said it would not have a great effect on patient volume or bad debt at hospitals because retail clinics focus on treating minor ailments, such as colds and the flu. And although retail-based clinics could impact patient volume at primary care physicians, Hynes doesn’t anticipate a significant impact on healthcare bad debt at private practices, either.

“They (primary care physicians) do not typically take uninsured patients,” she said.

Retail-based clinics have been around since 2000, but the industry is just beginning to grow. Wal-Mart announced last year that it plans to open as many as 2000 health clinics in its stores over the next five to seven years by partnering with local hospitals and other organizations. Like CVS, which has 190 MinuteClinics in 20 states, Walgreens, Target and Rite-Aid also have opened clinics in some of their stores.

The CVS purchase of Caremark expanded the industry’s potential. “It inherited a lot of corporate clients,” Hynes said, and in so doing positioned MinuteClinic for expansion into office complexes.

Hynes covers healthcare industry firms Community Health Systems, Health Management Associates, LifePoint Hospitals, Tenet Healthcare, and Universal Health Services.