NextCare Urgent Care to fund educational program for AHCCCS patients

In response to further state budget cuts to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), NextCare Urgent Care, the state's largest urgent care provider, has offered to sponsor and fund an educational program for AHCCCS patients who utilize emergency rooms for minor injuries and illness or use the emergency rooms as an alternative to seeing a Primary Care Provider. Urgent Care visits cost the state a small fraction of what even the most minor treatment would cost at a hospital emergency room.  

"We have done extensive research into why AHCCCS patients utilize the emergency room rather than see their Primary Care Provider, and all indications point to ease of use and availability," said John Julian, Chief Executive Officer of NextCare.  "We are available from 8am to midnight at multiple locations and can handle almost any non-life-threatening case in a clean and comfortable environment. NextCare even staffs pediatricians at 3 of our 22 total Arizona locations. In addition, NextCare is dedicated to encouraging patients to utilize their medical home proactively to save money for our partners in the medical plan community and improve overall patient outcomes."

According to Julian, the program utilizes feedback from AHCCCS patients and other sources such as focus groups, hospital partners, and surveys to key in on those AHCCCS members, who are draining the resources of the emergency rooms and the finances of the state, in order to direct them to the many convenient, cost-effective Urgent Care options.  

"These patients deserve the best care possible and cannot get that in an emergency room where life-threatening cases take priority and hospital overhead makes seeing these patients a loss for the hospital and a loss for the state.  Unlike many emergency departments, we have the time and ability to counsel patients on the importance of primary care and using Urgent Care, not emergency rooms, for more immediate needs," says Dr. Howard Podolsky, Chief Medical Officer for NextCare. "This program can save tens of millions of dollars for the state and ease the strained emergency resources in the hospitals to focus on the true emergencies. All parties, especially the patients, win when we succeed."

According to a ten-year study on emergency room utilization, commercial plans such as Blue Cross Blue Shield or United Healthcare will see approximately 15 emergency room visits utilized per 100 members each year. Medicaid plans see approximately 95 emergency room visits utilized per 100 members each year. NextCare reports that while they accept all major insurance plans, the Medicaid volumes are disproportionately low.