Clinical laboratories should prepare to receive test orders from these mini-medical centers, based on consumer demand for quick, inexpensive, local healthcare
Is the era of clinical laboratory testing offered in retail stores soon to arrive? Dark Daily as long as 10 years ago predicted that walk-in clinics featuring a nurse or nurse practitioner who could diagnose and prescribe for a limited number of health conditions—which had a remedy that could be purchased at the pharmacy in the retail store—would be the door-openers to locating more sophisticated clinical services in retail settings.
Since then, we’ve covered many such openings—including free standing urgent care clinics opening in urban settings to service the consumer demands of busy patients—which have impacted clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups in predictable ways.
The premise of the collaboration was based around the belief that consumers would welcome the opportunity and benefits of receiving basic healthcare services in a facility located next to a pharmacy. The Walgreens/MedExpress agreement, however, also indicates that two of the largest healthcare organizations in the world believe consumers would also be interested in visiting physicians who provided more sophisticated medical services, including critical care, in retail settings.
To date, Walgreens has opened MedExpress clinics in 15 locations in six states, including: Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. More such clinics are expected to open this year as part of the collaboration.
“MedExpress is a resource for busy families and employers that need timely access to affordable, high-quality healthcare close to home and work,” Fred Hinz (above), VP of Operations at MedExpress told Drug Store News. “Being connected to Walgreens will enable our patients to receive quality care and purchase any other items they need, all in one trip.” It also will likely result in increased orders for clinical laboratory testing from retail locations. (Photo copyright: Grand Island Independent.)
Future Health System Delivers Critical Care from Retail Locations
Motivated by consumer demand for convenient, high-quality healthcare, the urgent care market in the United States continues to grow. This trend will eventually influence clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups seeking to service these providers. It will be a dynamic market as new participants and mergers compete for leverage in this profitable business.
“This is just part of developing an overall higher-performing local health system,” Forbes reported UnitedHealth CEO David Wichmann telling analysts during the company’s earning call last month. “It’d just be one component that may be nested inside a local care delivery market with ambulatory surgical capacities and house calls and things of that nature. This is the future health system that we see delivering considerable value to people.”
The speedy growth in the number of and profitability of urgent care centers is another confirmation that this healthcare trend has legs. And experts believe the growth will continue and accelerate.
A recent report by market research and consulting firm MarketsandMarkets (MnM) predicts the global urgent care market should reach $25.93 billion (US) by the year 2023. The current value of the industry is $20 billion. The growth rate for the industry is expected to be 5.3% with North America being the region accounting for the highest amount of that growth.
The MnM report attributes the rise in the urgent care market to many factors, including:
Growing investments in urgent care;
Strategic developments between urgent care providers and hospitals;
Access to affordable care;
Convenience of shorter wait times; and,
Increase in the geriatric population.
The report projects that the biggest hurdle facing the urgent care industry will be the lack of a skilled workforce.
Urgent Care a Growth Industry According to Experts
There are currently more than 7,500 urgent care facilities in the United States, according to an Urgent Care Association (UCA) white paper.
According to the UCA, the top six urgent care organizations in the US each have more than 100 locations. Those companies include:
A 2017 UCA benchmarking report states that only 3% of patients who are seen at an urgent care facility were diverted to an emergency room in 2016. The top diagnosis codes for visits during that year were:
A report by Becker’s Hospital Review states that urgent care visits account for 19% of all healthcare visits in the US.
Urgent Care Centers Badly Needed and Highly Profitable
Last year, strategy consulting firm Health Systems Advisors (HSA) commissioned a study regarding the current and future need for urgent care centers. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, the HSA study stated that:
“With the recent rise of urgent care development, there is an estimated 22% unmet need for urgent care in markets where urgent care sites could be financially viable;
“The unmet demand is so large that approximately 1,600 new urgent care sites can be supported generating nearly $3.5 billion in revenue; and,
“For health systems seeking to grow, the urgent care channel presents a unique opportunity to grow their revenue, influence patients’ downstream choices, and create a better experience for individuals desiring more convenience and better access.”
And data collected by FAIR Health indicates that, between 2007 and 2016, insurance claims for urgent care visits grew by a whopping 1,725%! Claims for emergency room visits increased by 229% during the same time period. FAIR Health is a non-profit organization that examines insurance claims for medical services for the purpose of bringing transparency to healthcare costs and insurance information.
Opportunities for Clinical Laboratories to Support Physicians
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups should pay attention to the burgeoning trend in urgent care, as those facilities order medical tests that will require processing, reading, and analyzing.
Exploring opportunities to serve urgent care centers offers clinical laboratories potential revenue streams and opportunities to serve the physicians practices and medical communities they support.
Primary care is shifting from traditional office visits to urgent care and walk-in clinics even as large hospital groups continue to buy up independent physician practices, altering where and from whom clinical laboratories receive referrals and test orders Medical test ordering and referrals from office-based physicians are the financial foundation of the clinical laboratory industry. Thus, recent trends reshaping how and where physicians practice medicine, and the ownership of their medical...
Since the first retail clinic opened in Minneapolis in 2001, there has been a steady increase in the number of such clinics, typically located in retail pharmacies and chain retailers
In Minnesota, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is preparing to substantially increase the number of urgent care clinics it operates in the state. These retail-style clinics will be operated by MedExpress, a company that UnitedHealth acquired in 2015.
UnitedHealth’s decision to expand the number of MedExpress retail clinics it operates, both in Minnesota and nationally, is a sign to clinical laboratory managers and pathologists that consumer demand for health services delivered by a retail clinic continues to increase. (more…)
For the past 14 years, healthcare spending as a percentage of US gross domestic product has stayed flat—17.2% in 2010 compared to 17.8% in 2024—according to numbers presented by Robert Michel, editor-in-chief of Dark Daily and founder of the Executive War College.
“This is not auspicious for either the vendor side of the clinical laboratory business or providers,” Michel told attendees during the conference’s opening session.
“Clinical laboratories all must watch for opportunities to earn revenue through new business models,” said Robert Michel (above), editor-in-chief of Dark Daily. Michel spoke during a general session at the 2025 Executive War College on Diagnostics, Clinical Laboratory, and Pathology Management in New Orleans. (Photo copyright: LabX.)
Spending Blockades Will Push New Business Models for Labs
Michel ran through a series of other, similarly grim statistics that put hard numbers on trends that many laboratory executives and owners already suspected:
Half of Americans have less than $500 in a savings account, according to a January 2025 survey by GOBankingRates.com. Those people face tough financial decisions, including whether to postpone healthcare testing and treatment, Michel said.
Growth in Medicare spending by beneficiary generally stopped in 2010 and remained flat at around $12,500 per beneficiary as of 2023.
“Social Security and Medicaid are going to go broke sooner rather than later,” Michel predicted. “Congress has seen this problem and not reacted.”
Such financial challenges will force the need for new clinical laboratory business models. Among the key areas that will inspire these models are diagnostic data and technology, said Sam Terese, CEO and president at Alverno Laboratories, during his general session at the Executive War College.
“It comes back to using data to predict disease,” Terese explained. “If you can prevent someone from getting seriously ill, you will lower the cost of care.”
Terese pointed out the need to effectively use artificial intelligence (AI) to digest the massive amount of clinical data that labs sit on.
Another New Clinical Laboratory Business Model: Closing Care Gaps
Diagnostic laboratories should also be in the business of identifying care gaps among their patients and consumers. One subset to consider is diabetic and prediabetic people.
“Can the lab identify an A1C patient who should have come in to see their doctor based on the test result?” Michel asked. That type of approach raises the value of a lab test beyond just the result it produced, he added.
During another general session, Sonora Quest Laboratories showed how it determines risk stratification for colorectal cancer by using an algorithm that considers a patient’s age, gender, and minimum of two complete blood count test results to flag at-risk people.
“We’re able to get information to physicians to close that care gap,” said Jen Umscheid, senior director of quality, innovation, and performance excellence at Sonora Quest.
The Executive War College continues through Thursday, with an expected attendance of just over 1,000 delegates, speakers, and vendor representatives. Friday’s Dark Daily will explore how AI topics played out among curious attendees.
Clinical laboratories are particularly tasty targets for cybercriminals seeking the abundance of protect health information contained in patient electronic health records
Recent data from cybersecurity company Netwrix of Frisco, Texas, shows that 84% of healthcare organizations—including clinical laboratories and pathology groups—caught at least one cyberattack in the past year and “69% of them faced financial damage as a result.” That’s according to the company’s latest Hybrid Security Trends Report which notes that 24% of healthcare organizations are “fully cloud-based,” as opposed to just 11% of non-healthcare industries.
“Phishing was the most common type of incident experienced on premises, similar to other industries. Account compromise topped the list for cloud attacks: 74% of healthcare organizations that spotted a cyberattack reported user or admin account compromise,” the Netwrix report notes.
Phishing, where cybercriminals send fake emails and texts to unsuspecting employees that trick them into providing private information, continues to be one of the most prevalent cyberthreats experienced by healthcare organizations and often serves as the catalyst for much larger and more dangerous cyberattacks.
This is particularly dangerous in clinical laboratories where as much as 80% of protected health information (PHI) in patients’ electronic health records (EHRs) is laboratory test results and other personal medical data.
“Protected health information (PHI) is one of the most expensive types of data sold on darknet forums, which makes healthcare organizations a top target for cybercriminals, said Ilia Sotnikov (above), security strategist and VP of user experience at Netwrix, in the report. Clinical laboratory patient electronic health records are particularly weighted toward PHI. (Photo copyright: Netwrix.)
Don’t Open That Email!
Typical phishing scams begin with innocent-looking emails from companies that appear to be legitimate and often contain language that implies urgent action is needed on the part of the user. These emails can be very convincing, appear to originate from reputable companies, and usually instruct users to open an attachment contained in the email or click on a link that goes to a known company website. However, the site is a fake.
Once the harmful file attachment is opened, users will be directed to download fake software or ransomware that attempts to capture the user’s personal information. When visiting a malicious website, consumers will often receive pop-ups with instructions for updating information, but the true purpose is to harvest personal data.
Never provide any personal information to an unsolicited request.
If you believe the contact is legitimate, initiate a contact with the organization using verified data, usually via telephone.
Never provide any passwords over the phone or in response to an unsolicited Internet request.
Review any accounts, such as bank statements, often to search for any suspicious activity.
“Healthcare workers regularly communicate with many people they do not know—patients, laboratory assistants, external auditors and more—so properly vetting every message is a huge burden,” said IT security expert Dirk Schrader, VP of security research at Netwrix, in the report. “Plus, they do not realize how critical it is to be cautious, since security awareness training often takes a back seat to the urgent work of taking care of patients. Combined, these factors can lead to a higher rate of security incidents.”
Top 10 Brands Faked in Phishing Scams
Phishing emails often appear to be from legitimate companies to lull the recipient into a false sense of security. In a January 22 report, Check Point Research (CPR) announced its latest Brand Phishing Ranking for the fourth quarter of 2024. The report reveals the brands that were most frequently impersonated in phishing attacks by cybercriminals for the purpose of stealing personal information from consumers.
According to the CPR report, 80% of disclosed brand phishing incidents occurred within just 10 brands (listed below with each brand’s percentage of phishing attacks). They are:
According to the report, fraudulent domains “replicated official websites to mislead shoppers with fake discounts, ultimately stealing login credentials and personal information. These fraudulent sites replicate the brand’s logo and offer unrealistically low prices to lure victims. Their goal is to trick users into sharing sensitive information, such as login credentials and personal details, enabling hackers to steal their data effectively.”
Steps Clinical Labs Can Take to Protect Patients’ PHI
Clinical laboratories and pathology groups can take precautions that minimize the risk of allowing cybercriminals access to their patients’ PHI.
“A core defense strategy is to minimize standing privileges by using a privileged access management (PAM) solution. Another is to implement identity threat detection and response (IDTR) tools to quickly block malicious actors using compromised credentials,” said Ilia Sotnikov, security strategist and VP of user experience at Netwrix, in the report.
The threat of phishing scams is a lingering issue that everyone in healthcare should be aware of and take necessary precautions to recognize and prevent having one’s PHI stolen. Clinical laboratory management should constantly remind lab personnel and contractors to be vigilant regarding fake emails and texts from well-known brands that ask for private information.
