Retail Clinics Studies

For your information, attached are a couple of interesting studies on retail clinics just published in Health Affairs. One study found that even though retail clinics may be relatively less expensive for patients than going to a physician's office or receiving urgent care, there is no evidence showing that the increased use of retail clinics has led to a reduction in overall health care costs. The other study found that the majority of people going there had no primary care physician (only about 39 percent had a primary care relationship). The major reasons identified for visits to the clinics were upper respiratory infections, sinusitis, bronchitis, pharyngitis, immunizations, blood test, and blood pressure checks.

To access recent and past state health policy reports go to the State Health Policy section on the Chapter Leadership Network (CLN) website

Please contact Shuan Tomlinson at 800-338-2746 ext. 4547 or by email at stomlinson@acponline.org with questions on these or other topics.

September 15, 2008

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