Retail Clinic Growth Expected Under ACA

A recent Accenture finding projected retail health clinics may grow 25-30% annually in coming years, potentially doubling the number of retail clinics that exist. This expected retail clinic growth is due in part to the number of newly insured patients under the Affordable Care Act. MedPage Today reports:

Hospitals and primary care physicians (PCPs) -- groups that have shunned or been slow to accept retail clinics in the past, calling them competitors rather than accomplices -- are warming to the idea of working with such clinics, according to Accenture, based in Washington.

"A return to more stellar growth rates may now follow, not least as the perception of retail clinics as rivals switches to something more practical," said the report, entitled "Retail Medical Clinics: From Foe to Friend?".

In the early part of this century, such clinics grew at breakneck speed with annual growth hovering around 50% to 150% from 2001 to 2008 -- except in 2005, when growth hit 442%, according to Merchant Medicine, a research and consulting firm.

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