Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota announced Tuesday (read their announcement here: http://www.bluecrossmn.com/bc/wcs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_DYNAMIC_CONVERSION&RevisionSelectionMethod=Latest&dDocName=POST71A_121627) that people who they insure would no longer have to pay any co-payments when they get their care from retail clinics. Retail clinics aren't precisely defined in the press release, but Blue Cross provides a list and they are generally the one room offices staffed by nurse practitioners that are found in pharmacies and other retail outlets around the state.
In our view, this development has two ramifications for Minnesota hospitals and clinics:
- People now have one more reason to seek the convenience of a retail clinic. Already, they don't need appointments, costs are reasonable, and they're accessible. Use of retail clinics is going to increase.
- For most things they do, a nurse practitioner will provide reasonable quality of care. Problems may arise, however, when a more complicated condition is not recognized or when care is provided that is never communicated back to a patient's physician.
A good response for a clinic or a hospital is to operate your own retail clinic. This could be in a shopping area near where your patients live, or it could even be where you already provide services: our guess is that insurers like Blue Cross would even be receptive to the idea of setting up a retail clinic in an area adjacent to your emergency department or regular clinic. The key things you want to accomplish are (a) keeping patients loyal to your health care organization and (b) providing a better quality of care by assuring that what is done at the retail clinic is coordinated with the physicians' offices.
--David Allen