Urgent Care Center Growth in Claim Lines More Than Seven Times That of Emergency Rooms from 2007 to 2016
FH Healthcare Indicators: Focus on Places of Service
FH Healthcare Indicators reveals trends and patterns in the places where patients receive healthcare. These have seen dramatic changes in recent years as alternative places of service—including urgent care centers, retail clinics, telehealth and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs)—have become more widespread. Based on the study results, different places of service are associated with different diagnoses. For example, in retail clinics and urgent care centers in 2016, acute respiratory infections, such as the common cold, were the number one diagnostic category—but in telehealth, mental health-related diagnoses were number one.
Places of service differ in cost. In 2016, the median charge for a 30-minute new patient office visit ranged from
FH Medical Price Index: A New View of Medical Pricing
The FH Medical Price Index reports shifts in costs and permits useful comparisons among medical prices in six procedure categories:
- Professional E&M (excluding E&Ms performed in a hospital setting);
- Hospital E&M (excluding E&Ms performed in a professional setting, such as typical office visits);
- Medicine (excluding E&Ms);
- Surgery (procedures for which the physician would bill);
- Pathology and laboratory (technical and professional components, e.g., both equipment and physician services); and
- Radiology (technical and professional components).
The current categories emphasize professional fees and related costs and do not reflect facility fees.
The average median billed charge for professional evaluation and management services (E&Ms)1 provided in a hospital setting increased 28 percent in five years, from an index value of 1.00 in
By contrast, the index for professional billed charges for surgery shows growth of only three percent in the five-year period, and the surgery allowed amount index shows growth of two percent. The relative flatness of the surgery indices compared to those for professional E&Ms in a hospital setting may be due to a number of factors, including hospitals buying physician practices, new technologies that lower prices and hospital surgeons needing to keep their prices competitive with ASCs.
"FH Healthcare Indicators and the FH Medical Price Index bring a level of clarity to industry changes and medical costs not previously available," said
As part of its mission,
Register here for a webcast entitled, "FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index: Providing Clarity in a Rapidly Changing Environment," from
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1 An E&M is a patient-provider visit, such as for an examination, to diagnose illness or to determine or manage treatment. Professional E&Ms are typically done in a professional setting, such as a doctor's office, while hospital E&Ms are done in a hospital setting.
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