Urgent Care Centers Proliferate in Mass., But Fewer Low-Income Patients Have Access

Urgent care centers and walk in clinics that treat a range of medical issues are proliferating, especially in affluent suburbs of Massachusetts, according to the Boston Globe. A state commission counted 150 urgent care centers last year, up from 18 in 2010, reshaping the healthcare landscape in Massachusetts, promising to treat non-life-threatening medical conditions without appointments at a fraction of the cost of ERs. But companies are not rushing to open urgent care centers in the lower-income neighborhoods in Boston. Only a small fraction of their revenue comes from patients on Medicaid, which insures more than one quarter of the state's residents. 30 to 40 percent of centers refuse to treat Medicaid patients, saying the program's requirements are onerous and does not pay enough to cover their costs. The state generally will not pay for residents on Medicaid to visit an urgent care center unless the patient has a referral from a primary care doctor, a burdensome requirement which can prevent the urgent care companies from treating large numbers of low-income patients. MinuteClinics began operating in Massachusetts more than a decade ago, and are regulated by the state, while urgent care centers are still new enough to Massachusetts that the state has no official definition for them, nor specific rules for how they operate.