Hospital Corporation of America is acquiring CareNow, an urgent care clinic network in greater Dallas-Fort Worth, for an undisclosed sum. It’s the latest evidence of health systems facing an urgent need to improve and diversify their overall customer experience.
CareNow operates 24 walk-in clinics in the bustling Dallas-Fort Worth region, offering care for minor emergencies like cuts, sprains and burns, as well as family and general care, for immunizations, physicals and EKGs.
Founded in 1993 and based in Coppell, Texas, CareNow was one of several early pioneers in retail healthcare, offering walk-in access to basic primary and minor emergency care at relatively low prices — in a healthcare market where patients have a lot of choices.
Today, CareNow accepts insurance from 30 health plans and boasts of its flexibility, taking online appointments or accepting walk-ins from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the week and closing at 8 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. on Sunday.
These are the kinds of simple, necessarily consumer-friendly attributes that traditional healthcare organizations like hospitals and medical practices have struggled to evolve in tandem with their existing business models. But with the specter of Walmart, CVS and dozens of walk-in and urgent care chains becoming a central part of people’s healthcare, these offerings are needed to compete in the new health economy — as HCA would seem to be surmising with its purchase of CareNow.
Retail healthcare’s online and same-day appointments and walk-in on-site lab tests “are eventually going to rise to be the standard” across the U.S. explained Lisa Bielamowicz, MD, the chief medical officer at the Advisory Board Company. “No doubt that consumers of any income level want convenience and availability for basic care, and these factors can trump doctor-patient relationships, especially for younger patients..
CareNow will become a division inside of HCA and could give it a large urgent care foothold and hospital and physician referral buoy in one of its largest markets. In the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, HCA operates 11 hospitals and more than 50 ambulatory sites, with more than 5,000 active physicians.
“CareNow has a strong brand and will add an exceptional network of urgent care centers and 130 physicians that complement our hospital, emergency and outpatient services in Dallas-Fort Worth,” said Sam Hazen, HCA president of operations. “This transaction represents two trusted providers coming together to deliver a broader and more integrated level of quality healthcare services.”
HCA, based in Nashville, operates hospitals in 20 states and expects to complete the transaction by the end of the year. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but it is HCA’s second acquisition this fall related to the patent experience. In September, the company announced that it would purchase PatientKeeper, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based maker of web and mobile patient-clinician connectivity applications.
So far this year, HCA is sustaining growing revenue and earnings as CEO Milton Johnson assumes the role of chairman of the board, after more than 30 years at the company.
For the third quarter of 2014, HCA reported revenues that increased 9 percent, to $9.2 billion, and net income that grew by more than a third, to $518 million. With admissions also up by about 3 percent, the company is adjusting its expected full year EBITDA up, to between $7.25 billion and $7.35 billion.