Need to pick up some mouthwash, office supplies and get your flu shot? Now with the advent of mini-healthcare centers such as MinuteClinic located in CVS (CVS) drugstores you can!
These little clinics, such as MinuteClinic, Take Care, HealthPartners, and RediCare, offer treatments for minor ailments ranging from allergies to warts inside major retail stores. They will diagnose, treat and write prescriptions for patients wiht common ilnesses, according to this MSNBC.com article.
MinuteClinic is the nation's largest operator of retail clinics, with 116 stores in 17 states. Since they began in 2000 they have seen more than 600,000 patients. Retailers such as Target (TGT), Kroger (KR), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Walgreen (WAG) are jumping on the bandwagon and partnering with more than a dozen clinic operators to open thousands of these mini, in-store clinics in the next two years.
Drugstores such as Walgreens consider themselves as a healthcare retailer anyway, with two-thirds of their revenue coming from the pharmacy. Adding TakeCare clinics to 60 of their stores by the year's end just seems to make sense. Retailers are leasing space and won't make money off of the businesses themselves but hope to increase floor traffic and and thereby sales. Many clinics will be giving out pagers so patients can shop while waiting for their appointment.
Prices for treatment are posted outside each center so there are no sticker shock surprises, no appointments are required and the clinics are even open evenings and on the weekends with typical visits lasting no more than 15 minutes. You can use your insurance and only pay the co-pay indicated on your insurance card or if you don't have insurance visits usually cost about $49 to $59, much less than a standard doctor visit, which can run you over a $100.
And get this! Many health insurers are already waiving the co-pay since the visits at the mini-clinics are proving to be a cost-saving method. The speed and convenience of these clinic visits are encouraging people to be seen earlier and catching health issues sooner, before they get to a crisis stage, thereby saving even more money.
Are doctors and hospitals feeling threatened? You bet. They are fighting back by expanding office hours and same-day appointments with some hospitals even adding Starbucks, restaurants and medical spas.
Maybe someday you can hit the mall to get a new outfit and get that pesky cough looked at too.
Three cheers for all the drugstores with $4 generics! And now Wal-Mart has started selling 3 months of some generics for $10. Wow! For my other meds that aren't generic I use the prescription discount card that I found at www.rxdrugcard.com. Low membership fee. Drug prices posted to check before you join.
Posted by: Lily | June 19, 2008 1:49 PM | Permalink to Comment