Welcome to The Check In!
With inboxes and feeds overflowing, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Let me do the digging and bring you the gems—relevant, useful updates without the noise.
This morning, I decided to see what suggestions ChatGPT would have for operators of new Urgent Care centers on what services they should consider. The prompt I used was rather basic, but I found the results to be extensive… but are they right?
Source – UCA Top Operators and UC Counts by State January 2026- 15,309 open centers 40% affiliated with or owned by a hospital Each month
Urgent Care growth in 2025 continued to reflect a maturing industry focused on scale, access, and comprehensive on-site services. A total of 611 new Urgent
Health insurers are increasingly using automatic downcoding to reduce payments based on the assumption that physicians are upcoding — often without reviewing the medical record. This shift places added financial and administrative strain on practices, particularly in high-acuity, high-volume settings like Urgent Care, and raises concerns about fairness, transparency, and the long-term impact on patient access to care.
Clinicians are increasingly evaluating employers not only on compensation and location but also on the digital tools that shape their day-to-day work. If your Urgent Care organization has open positions on the Urgent Care Compass platform, be sure and let job seekers know the commitment your organization has made to technology. It will certainly attract top talent!
There have been ~250 new Urgent Care centers open across the nation to date in 2025. The December 2025 ranking reports include the top 50 hospital and independent operators, and center counts by state, even showing which states have climbed the ranks over the year. Visit this post on The Check In for more details.
Patients and clinicians are busier than ever — and a new survey shows just how much that impacts the patient experience. Long waits, rushed visits, and difficulty reaching a real person are now top reasons patients leave their doctors. With most people juggling tight schedules and expecting quick, personalized care, practices that streamline communication and reduce friction stand to retain more patients in an increasingly time-pressed healthcare environment.
Starting January 1, 2026, Anthem BCBS will introduce a 10% reimbursement penalty for hospitals in 11 states when out-of-network physicians treat their members. Driven by the No Surprises Act’s impact on insurer costs, the policy applies to non-emergent OON care at in-network hospitals, with rural and safety-net facilities carved out for now.
Disappointing but not surprising… This recent West Health-Gallup Center for Healthcare in America report: “State of the States 2025: Insights on Healthcare in America” ranks all states on cost, quality and access and the U.S. is definitely not going to the head of the class.
In the first BLS jobs report since the government shut down 42,800 healthcare jobs were added in the month of September. Ambulatory healthcare services growth saw the biggest increase!
Hi there!
I’m Jami, and I’ve been with UCA for over 15 years. All things Urgent Care continue to fascinate me—especially how it’s evolved over time. I’ve always loved data and the stories it tells, particularly its ability to drive strategic decisions.
When I started, most centers were solo operations (53%) —now, only 17% are. Today, over half of operators have 10+ centers. Understanding how and why that shift happened is what keeps me hooked.
I’m constantly diving into healthcare news, social media, and government data—searching for patterns and stories. That curiosity sparked The Check In, a space to share the insights I used to drop in Teams.
Join me as we dig into the numbers and uncover the cool stuff happening in Urgent Care!
Email me any time – jkral@urgentcareassociation.org
Thanks!
Jami