Congressional Briefing - March 19, 2010
Health Care on Aisle 7: The Growing Phenomenon of Retail Clinics
Speakers: |
Ateev Mehrotra |
Date: |
Friday, March 19, 2010 |
Time: |
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
Location: |
2456 Rayburn House Office Building |
About the Program
Retail clinics, which are medical clinics located in pharmacies, grocery stores, and "big box" stores, represent a growing segment of the health care industry. The first retail clinics opened in 2000 and by 2008 they numbered close to 1,000.
Policymakers see great promise for retail clinics to improve access for all patients, serve as a safety net, and provide a less costly alternative to emergency room visits. However, some medical professionals have concerns about retail clinics, such as their effect on quality of care, on preventive care, and on the existing patient-physician relationships.
RAND has conducted some of the first empirical analyses of retail clinics. The following are among the questions addressed by RAND and presented at this briefing:
- Where are retail clinics located and who uses them?
- What is the quality of care provided at retail clinics?
- What is the cost of care at retail clinics compared with the cost of traditional sources of care?
- What percentage of visits to traditional sources of care could be treated at a retail clinic instead?
About the Speaker
Ateev Mehrotra is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a policy analyst at RAND. His research has focused on the measurement and reporting of health care quality and efficiency, pay-for-performance incentives, the organization of physician groups, and a new model for ambulatory care retail clinics. Mehrotra is board certified in both internal medicine and pediatrics. His clinical work has been both as a primary care physician and as an adult and pediatric hospitalist. Mehrotra received his M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, and completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Children's Hospital of Boston. In addition, he earned an M.S. in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health and an M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley.
RAND Office of Congressional Relations
For more than 60 years, RAND has provided policymakers with independent, objective research and analysis on key national security, domestic and international issues. RAND work helps members of Congress and their staffs make better-informed decisions on the nation's pressing challenges. The Office of Congressional Relations offers a number of products and services to educate, inform, and facilitate congressional policymakers' access to RAND work, including coordinating congressional testimony by RAND experts, organizing briefings and meetings, synthesizing RAND work into topical e-newsletters and providing reports and publications to congressional offices. For more information, visit the Office of Congressional Relations webpage, contact ocr@rand.org or call (703) 413-1100, ext. 5395.
Further Inquiries
For further information about this event, contact the Office of Congressional Relations at ocr@rand.org or call (703) 413-1100, ext. 5395.