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News
Wal-Mart Won't Meet Original Projections
July 2, 2009
Retailer tells Dow Jones it is still committed to retail clinic program.
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MinuteClinic Closes 11 Locations in Texas
July 2, 2009
Largest retail clinic operator continues "seasonal" downsizing.
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Moving Low-Cost Care Away from Insurance
June 6, 2009
A New York Times article captures the future of primary care and health insurance.
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Retail Clinics on Hold in Massachusetts
June 2, 2009
A policy memo around plumbing code belatedly affects openings.
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Closures in Milwaukee and South Florida
June 1, 2009
Broward Health exits while The Little Clinic cuts back in South Florida.  Aurora health closes four more clinics in Milwaukee.
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Clinic Operators Gear Up for H1N1
May 3, 2009
The swine flu outbreak has caused virtually all retail clinic operators to prepare for large numbers of patient visits. 
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A Quiet Month for Retail Clinics
May 3, 2009
The retail clinic market saw only seven clinic openings in April.  But compared to this time last year, market share has changed significantly.
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Synovate Flu Shot Study Misses the Point
April 2, 2009
A study released in late February by Synovate Healthcare, a market research firm, came to an unusual conclusion about flu shots in retail clinics. 
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MinuteClinic Closes 89 Locations - Updated
March 9, 2009
It appears that MinuteClinic is in the middle of a major "seasonal" restructuring of clinics across the country. 
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Clinic Openings Go into Hibernation
March 1, 2009

Growth has slowed to a trickle in anticipation of the traditional offseason.

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Cleveland Clinic Partners with MinuteClinic
February 13, 2009
This partnership may not be just about physician oversight. 
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New Towers Perrin Healthcare Study Released
February 12, 2009
Study Outlines Strategies of High-Performing Companies
Towers Perrin has just released results from its 2009 Health Care Cost Survey, which shows that high-performing companies will pay, on average, 12% less in annual health care premiums in 2009 compared to low-performing companies.
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Wasson Becomes New Walgreens CEO
January 27, 2009
Wasson has been instrumental in Walgreens’ move to become a major player in the retail clinic industry. 

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MinuteClinic Pulls Out of Portland and Seattle
January 26, 2009
MinuteClinic has ended its relationship with QFC grocery stores and closed its clinics in Portland and Seattle. 
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Take Care Health Launches Employer-Centric Pharmacy and Health Care Offering
January 14, 2009
The new program called Complete Care and Well-Being is aimed at employers and intends to help reduce health care and prescription costs.
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RediClinic Pulls out of Walmart
January 2, 2009
In early December RediClinic made the decision to pull out of 15 Walmart locations where it had been operating retail clinics.  The company operated nine Walmart locations in Richmond, VA, two in Atlanta, two in Northwest Arkansas and two in Tulsa.
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$1,000 Deductible the Norm in 2008
December 1, 2008
Mercer released a study just before Thanksgiving that shows the median deductible has jumped from $500 to $1,000 since 2007.
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Insight
Future of Retail Clinics: Part 2
July 2, 2009
Using Atul Gawande's New Yorker Article as a Guide
Dr. Gawande’s article has garnered more high-level attention since the Dartmouth Atlas Project.  It also helps point the way for retail clinics.
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Future of Retail Clinics: Part 1
June 2, 2009
Using Clayton Christiansen's new book as a guide
Seldom do you find a business that is talked about in such divergent terms.  Patients love retail clinics for the convenience and cost.  Many policy leaders look at the macroeconomics of healthcare and say how could retail clinics not succeed.  But it’s not hard to find current or former retail clinic management who see it as a bust.  Could this industry be on the verge of collapse?  Or is it here to stay and prosper?

To help structure the answer, we turn to two definitional healthcare policy works that provide guideposts for walk-in medicine.  This month we look at a relatively new book by Clayton Christiansen, called The Innovator’s Prescription.  We’ll summarize some of the points of the book that seem relevant to retail healthcare, and then provide some potential paths forward.  Next month we’ll look at Atul Gawande’s most recent article in The New Yorker, "The Cost Conundrum."


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Retail Clinic Legislation -- A Rundown of Recent Policy Initiatives
May 3, 2009
By Caroline Ridgeway, JD
The retail clinic industry has faced a number of legislative and regulatory challenges during the past few years.  Caroline Ridgeway of the Convenient Care Association provides an overview of how these initiatives have evolved.

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Retail Clinics by Metro Area
April 2, 2009
A geographic look at clinic saturation and demand
It was once assumed that clinics in retail stores would show up in just about every major metropolitan area across the United States.  This month we take a look at what markets are not as well as which ones are reaching saturation.
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A Travel Industry Giant Drops in on Healthcare
March 1, 2009
A Profile of Hal Rosenbluth

He has lived in the world of corporate travel management and now the world of healthcare.  Oddly enough, the corporate travel world seems to know a lot more about Hal Rosenbluth than the healthcare world.  But that may be about to change.

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On-Site Employer Clinics
February 3, 2009
Disruptive Innovation Times Two
The concept has been around for about as long as employee health insurance, perhaps longer. But now these clinics are back because of rising health costs and flat wage increases.  Questions remain around the return on investment, the role employers should take with employee health, the definition of a medical home, and just how many employees it takes to make an on-site clinic work.
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Retail Clinics: 2008 Year-End Review and 2009 Outlook
January 5, 2009
Many closures in 2008 but the market continues to expand
2008 will go down as the year that logic and reason overtook the retail clinic market, much the way it did with the technology market in 2000.  Read about how the major players ended 2008 and what 2009 will bring.
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Key Factors in Retail Clinic Growth
December 1, 2008
A recent study by the Rand Corporation and the California Healthcare Foundation predicts that the number of retail clinics in the United States could reach 6,000 by 2011.   Indeed, despite the brief slide last June, the number of retail clinics in the United States is back in growth mode.  Read why reaching 6,000 clinics by 2011 is all but impossible as well as what will continue to drive this industry.
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Retail Clinics and the Changing Primary Care Landscape
November 1, 2008
There is a growing body of physician groups and health systems that are looking at retail clinics through a different lens.  They would argue that despite the criticisms from many physicians, there are many counter arguments that support the need for retail clinics.
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Retail Clinics and the November Election
October 1, 2008
As the market for retail clinics reaches critical mass and the number of those employed directly or indirectly is becoming quite large, many people in this industry are wondering whether the outcome of the 2008 presidential election could have a positive or negative impact on a booming market.
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Health Systems Take On The Big Shots
September 1, 2008
103 Clinics Now Operated Under Health System Brands
We are seeing the development of a new model that could be the beginning of local hospital systems becoming national players.
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Primary Care Meets Private Investor
August 1, 2008
Former Retail Clinic Operators Share Lessons Learned
It all seemed so simple.  Open a clinic inside a busy retail store with a pharmacy and patients will come.  For many, it didn't work out that way.  Several former operators provide some of the lessons they learned.
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Key "Must Haves" in Building Patient Volume
July 1, 2008
Most retail clinics aren’t seeing anywhere near the patient visits their operators thought they would by this time.  But does all this mean the retail clinic business is a bust?  The answer is no. 
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Bellin Health
Retail Clinics in the United States
Total Retail Clinics:  1107
Total Number of States:  38
Total Number of Operators:  61
Total Retailers:  43
Total Hospital Systems:  43
Retail Clinic Growth
Growth by Major Players

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