Margin Compression Crisis

Now that the Urgent Care industry has fully “extracted” profitability from the transition away from physicians to APP’s what’s next for-profit generation (besides COVID)?

Wage inflation is baked in the cake, but fee increases for us are not! Unfortunately, we do not have “pricing power”. We cannot just “pass it on” to our patients. The carriers are in the driver’s seat, and they know it. First, they offer case rates and now “triage rates” and ultimately no rate as they go to “telephonic nurse triage” to specialists. Unfortunately, that is their view of what we have been doing with injuries. Their intention is to skip urgent care altogether as an unnecessary expense.

We are left with “make it up on volume” or “adding efficiencies”. But those have their limits.

I would suggest capturing more injury cases. And particularly work comp. With injuries, you capture the E&M code, the x-ray, DME, and recheck visits. Why not? If you don’t do these, the communities you serve will simply go elsewhere with their injuries. How many times do they have to “pay twice” before they realize they should skip you next time and go to the local Ortho Urgent Care?

Injuries represent $500-$600 per first visit and $150 for rechecks. That is far superior to a routine illness case! OccDocOne can almost overnight upgrade provider training and performance at your centers!