CVS CareMark officials recently put 90 MinuteClinic locations on a seasonal schedule in order to save money and better align with customer demand.
“No dates have been announced for re-opening seasonal (MinuteClinics), but it will be during the fall flu shot season,” said Bret Burkhardt, a press representative for MinuteClinic. A seasonal clinic will operate from the early fall months when flu shots are commonly given until early spring when flu season ends.
Retail clinics like MinuteClinic – small medical offices usually staffed by nurse practitioners and located inside grocery stores, drug stores and discount outlets – are proving popular, especially to the 90 million uninsured and underinsured.
That’s why CVS’ announcement is raising some eyebrows.
A retail clinic is “a concept that makes a lot of sense in the current economy,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher for Kalorama Information. “For the unemployed, this is their place to get routine medical care. There won’t be an explosion of new locations right now, but the existing locations will prosper.”
Kalorama, which recently published “Retail Clinics and the In-Store Healthcare Market 2009: Bright Spot in the Current Economy?” estimates the value of the retail clinic market at $545.9 million in 2008, increasing 130.6 percent per year since 2003.
According to CVS Caremark officials, nearly all of the seasonal MinuteClinic locations are within 10 miles of another, full-time location, and more than half are within five miles.
“We are extending weekend hours in certain clinics to better align with customer demand,” said Carolyn Castel, vice president of corporate communications for CVS Caremark. “With these changes, MinuteClinic will be continuing to serve all of the communities in which we operate while maintaining access to care.”
athenahealth, which provides medical billing services to retail clinics, said that it views the MinuteClinics as still a relatively young business model, and in light of a benign flu season and a weak economy, CVS management may be fundamentally reassessing the consumer demand for this service.
As of January 2008, there are more than 1, 060 convenient care clinics throughout the United States, including 500 MinuteClinic locations in 25 states. A few other clinics include: TheLittleClinic, Careworks, Aurora QuickCare, FastCare, Target Clinic and QuickHealth.
It is unclear if other clinics are experiencing economic distress, although athenahealth officials say that CVS’ move could be a negative indicator to the other retail clinic providers with which the company does business.