Typically located inside grocery and drug stores, retail health clinics provide convenient health care for common ailments. Patients don’t need an appointment, and care is administered by a licensed nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant instead of a staff physician. According to a recent RAND report, ongoing debates over the role of retail health clinics has raised concerns that they pose a threat to the financial viability of primary-care practices by treating the latter’s most profitable patients. Others argue that retail clinics drive primary-care revenue up by generating referrals to those practices and by freeing physicians to focus on sicker patients with more complex needs who generate higher reimbursement. RAND researchers tend to side with those who see retail clinics as less of a rival and more of a complement to existing care. The report further notes that the heaviest users of retail clinics tend to be younger adults and minority families who are less likely to have an established relationship with a primary-care provider.
