In-store health clinics have been lauded as a market-driven solution to America's failing health care system whose benefits include providing accessible health services to the uninsured. Considering that there are some 46 million people without health insurance in America, in-store clinics should be booming.But according to a new study from the Center for Studying Health System Change, only 2.3% of Americans have ever used a retail clinic as of 2007, a rate described by the study's authors as "modest." And while the retail clinic industry has yet to reach all American markets, it's now growing at a much slower rate than at its beginning, the study states.
That slowed growth rate "would likely disproportionately affect underserved Americans who lack affordable alternatives for primary care," the study goes on to explain, but retail clinics are already failing to reach the uninsured. Only 500,000 uninsured families used a retail clinic in 2007, according to the CSHSC' study - a fraction of the 46 million people who are uninsured.
Unfortunately, these figures make sense when it comes to CVS's clinics: as we discuss in our report, the retail pharmacy chain is far more likely to allocate its MinuteClinics in predominantly white, affluent communities - where residents are more likely to have access to health insurance. Residents of predominantly non-white, lower income communities - those most likely to lack insurance coverage - have far less access to the clinics.
What does this mean for CVS's MinuteClinics? Wouldn't providing equal access across neighborhoods of all income ranges increase the clinics' popularity? And if so, wouldn't that help the company and patients?
Despite the Hype, Patients' Use of Retail Clinics Is 'Modest' [Wall Street Journal Health Blog]