Content about General practice

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy will notify physicians within two hours whether a patient has been accepted for treatment, the company said.

BioPlus said the new "2-Hour Patient Acceptance Guarantee" program would let physicians know if their patients could be admitted pending insurance qualifications or would not be admitted and triaged to another pharmacy.

WALTHAM, Mass. — One-of-every-4 deaths among Americans between the ages of 35 years and 69 years can be attributed to smoking, according to a study published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. But smoking cessation efforts can help curb that trend, researchers noted. 

For the most common conditions suffered by consumers or someone in their household, OTCs served as the first line of defense for more than 40% of consumers across the board, according to an online survey of more than 900 AccentHealth viewers that was conducted in September.

WASHINGTON — Many health insurance plans are failing to provide coverage mandated by the healthcare reform law for treatments to help smokers and other tobacco users quit, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids reported Monday, citing a study of insurance contracts by Georgetown University researchers that the group commissioned. 

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Valeant Consumer Products recently announced that its line of Ocean Saline Nasal Sprays has been the most recommended by pharmacists for 15 years running. 

Ocean offers nonmedicated relief from dry and irritated nasal passages due to allergies, colds, flu, sinusitis and rhinitis. The nasal spray is gentle enough for infants and has three delivery options — standing the bottle upright delivers a spray; horizontally, a stream; and upside-down, a drop. 

As the healthcare landscape continues to undergo significant changes, a new report by Marketdata Enterprises puts a number against a highly valuable and fast-growing segment of health care that will continue to grow regardless of who is elected president and what happens to healthcare reform: retail-based health clinics.


The September 2012 report, titled “The Market for Retail Health Clinics and Urgent Care Centers,” examined the operations of both convenient care clinics and urgent care centers.


PHILADELPHIA — Independence Blue Cross announced that it has expanded members' access to care by adding coverage for treatment at urgent care centers and retail clinics, and also has developed a new Web tool to help members locate these facilities.

The new Web tool is designed to make it easier for members to find urgent care centers and retail clinics for care for nonemergency conditions when their personal physicians are not available, like evenings and weekends.

TAMPA, Fla. — The retail health clinic and urgent care center market currently is worth about $10 billion and is poised for strong growth in the coming years as the shortage of primary care physicians and crowded emergency rooms increasingly move patients to retail sites, according to new data by Marketdata Enterprises, an independent market research publisher.

Can you feel that? 


It’s the seismic shift that currently is occurring in health care in this country. And really, it’s just a tremor. The intense stuff isn’t expected to hit until 2014.


That’s why we’re creating “Patient Views” (see page 6), a new department that will be featured Upfront in every issue of DSN and in every edition of our daily 
e-newsletter, DSN A.M.


CINCINNATI — Summer is the time when barbecue aficionados are most likely to feel heartburn’s effects, according to a new study released by Procter & Gamble on behalf of its Prilosec OTC brand Tuesday.

Nearly half (46%) of Americans with frequent heartburn identified barbecue season as the time of year when they are most likely to suffer from heartburn symptoms. And more than half (63%) of chronic heartburn sufferers admitted that their condition frequently interferes with them having fun.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. and JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Solantic, an operator of urgent care centers in Florida, is changing its name to CareSpot Express Healthcare to represent a new brand and new vision for the company.

ATLANTA — Sales of smoking-cessation products may realize a March boom following a recent government advertising campaign that encourages Americans to quit smoking.

One week following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's launch of its Tips from Former Smokers campaign, calls to the 1-800-QUIT-NOW quitline were up 130.4%, the agency reported Monday. Calls were up an additional 3.5% in the subsequent week.

A record 34,413 calls were fielded between March 26 and April 1, the CDC reported.