Findings from HCFO-Funded Study Featured in Article on Retail Clinics

Asheville’s Sona Pharmacy and Clinic recently joined the retail clinic movement, combining a community pharmacy, urgent care, and primary care services under one roof. As Emily Patrick of the Citizen-Times [1] discusses, Sona’s goal is to steer patients away from high-cost care centers by offering available, affordable and comprehensive care at retail clinics. Patrick notes, however, that retail clinics have drawn criticism from some. She references findings from a HCFO-funded study [2] from Ateev Mehrotra, Harvard Medical School, that found [3] 58 percent of retail clinic visits were for conditions that otherwise would have gone untreated, amounting to an increase in health care costs of $14 per person. Mehrotra notes that, “The increase in spending from new utilization trumps the savings we saw from replacing doctor visits and the emergency department.”