Walk-In Clinics Can Bring Affordable Health Care to the Uninsured

Oct. 19, 2006 — -- Despite the $1.9 trillion spent on health care in the United States in 2005 -- 16 percent of the GDP -- the American system of keeping its citizens well, and caring for them when they are ill, remains broken and neither consumers nor health-care providers are happy.

Because of the rising costs of health insurance and a startling number of employers cutting back or simply not offering health-care benefits, for the first time in decades millions of Americans are opting out of health insurance altogether.

Consequently, patients are paying a greater percentage out of their own pocket and searching for health-care alternatives.

To answer the growing need for affordable health care, walk-in clinics staffed by medical professionals have sprung up in retail stores across the nation.

These clinics provide high-quality, nonemergency care in a convenient setting at preestablished and reasonable rates.

From a slow start in the early part of the decade, the industry has exploded with approximately 300 clinics in current operation and up to 3,000 planning to open their doors over the next three years.

This new approach to health care has the potential to dramatically reshape health care in this country by providing an easy and alternative entry point into the health-care system for millions of patients without a regular physician.

Early anecdotal information suggests that up to 40 percent of the customers of retail walk-in clinics may not have a regular doctor.

Imagine your child has an ear infection or your husband has poison ivy or you have strep throat -- on a Saturday afternoon.

You have two options -- wait until Monday or face an overcrowded emergency room where you may wait for hours before being seen and are then billed at the urgent care rate.

Walk-in clinics give families a new, more cost-effective third option of going to your neighborhood retail store and visiting the clinic. Diagnosis and medication if needed in hand, a patient can be seen, treated, and back home in bed in a fraction of the time.

If the patient already has a regular family physician, he or she can be sent the patient's record that provides an ongoing accurate account of treatment.

Dr. Alan Lotvin is a cardiologist, and president and CEO of Care Clinic, Inc. a health-care clinic operator. Beginning in November 2006, Care Clinic, Inc. will open walk-in clinics in Indiana, Michigan and Nevada, providing basic health-care services to local community residents.