Urgent Care Vs PCP

ra_mom

Thu, Feb 21 2019, 11:41 am

This has been building up for years. It's not just BP. Have you ever walked the streets of Manhattan, or driven through the suburbs of New Jersey?

And it's pretty simplistic to say that PCP payments were cut because of urgent care centers. Obamacare anyone? Higher premiums. Smaller payouts. We're all getting screwed, patients and doctors alike.

Private doctors can't afford to stay private either. Many arebeing bought up by hospitals. Besides for the small payouts, malpractice insurance has become unaffordable due to frivolous suits.

Urgent care centers have always been paid more than PCPs and less than emergency rooms. When the masses realized this, they opened urgent care centers to cash in.

amother

Apricot

Thu, Feb 21 2019, 12:15 pm

Maybe wrote:

Visit Boro Park, find Almost as many urgent care centers, as Banks. Since United Healthcare pays urgent care very well. Traditional pediatricians are fighting back, buy refusing to accept United Healthcare.

Pediatricians are not fighting urgent care they're fighting the ridiculously low rates that uhc is insisting on paying. I'm not sure why you think the renegotiated rates have anything to do with urgent care.

Rutabaga

Thu, Feb 21 2019, 1:01 pm

I take my children to a local pediatric group that I'm pretty happy with. Since it's a group rather than a single practitioner their hours are quite extensive. I much prefer taking my kids there over an urgent care for sick visits since they are comfortable with the doctors and have a relationship. It's also good for pediatricians to see if there's a pattern in the visits that requires a closer look.

My own GP is both further away and harder to get an appointment with so I'm more likely to pop in to a local urgent care for myself if I suspect I have more than just a virus. I'm almost always right too about myself but I'm more likely to take my children to the pediatrician since they can't always articulate exactly what's wrong. I'd rather err on the side of caution and have the doctor say it's just a virus than miss something.

amother

Seafoam

Thu, Feb 21 2019, 1:06 pm

Urgent cares are being used for the wrong reason. They should be used for things that have to be seen when your doctor is not available, but do not need an emergency room. They should not be used as a doctor's office. They should definitely not be filling out school forms or referrals. In most cases, they are not even doctors, they are PA's who are overseen by doctors. PA training does not come close to doctor's training.

It is important to have all your healthcare in one place, with continuity of care. Having a doctor who gets to know you is invaluable. The doctor will be able to pick up on small things that a PA or even urgent care doctor would not.

Think of an urgent care as a local emergency room. You would not rely on the emergency room for your care, only for emergencies.

The reason that the primary doctors are dropping United Healthcare is solely due to financial reasons. It costs a lot of money to run a doctor's office. It is not just the rent and salaries of the staff, there are a lot of background and beurocratic things that also have to be paid for. The doctor's do not control how much they get paid per visit, that is determined by the insurance company.

When the insurance company suddenly decided to decrease its payments by 40%, it is not possible for the doctor's office to cover its bills. That is the reason that they are all leaving. Nothing to do with the urgent care facilities.