As healthcare continues its push toward outpatient, value-based care, hospitals and health systems are staking claims in a growing — and increasingly critical — sector: urgent care.
Once viewed as an ancillary service, urgent care centers have become central to health systems’ strategies for expanding access, managing costs and bolstering their competitive edge. The space is becoming a key battleground, where health systems, retail giants and payer-backed providers are racing to provide low-acuity care that is convenient, cost-effective and connected.
The U.S. urgent care market is accelerating rapidly and is projected to grow to $55 billion by 2030. With growing demand for alternatives to overcrowded emergency departments — and a consumer base that expects care to “meet them where they are” — urgent care centers have become high-priority acquisition targets.
For health systems, urgent care facilities provide a gateway for new patient referrals and a pressure release for overburdened emergency departments and primary care practices. They also act as a strategic lever to reduce out-of-network leakage to retail and payer-owned competitors, such as CVS Health, Walgreens and Optum.
A flurry of recent joint ventures and acquisitions signals just how high the stakes have become. Major health systems are doubling down:
- Pittsburgh-based UPMC and GoHealth Urgent Care launched a joint venture establishing 81 UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care centers throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
- Indianapolis-based Community Health Network also formed a joint venture with GoHealth Urgent Care to operate and expand urgent care services across Indiana.
- Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health acquired UCI Medical Affiliates from Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, adding 52 Doctors Care and Progressive Physical Therapy clinics staffed by nearly 200 clinicians.
- Brentwood, Tenn.-based Ardent Health acquired 18 urgent care clinics from Tempe, Ariz.-based NextCare Urgent Care in New Mexico and Oklahoma. The deal follows the health system’s purchase of nine urgent care facilities in Topeka, Kansas and East Texas in 2024.
- Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems’ subsidiary Northwest Urgent Care acquired 10 centers from Carbon Health, a primary and urgent care provider headquartered in San Francisco.
- Mercy Health-Toledo (Ohio) launched a network of urgent care facilities through the acquisition of 10 facilities, effective April 1. The acquired centers include four locations in Toledo, two in Southeast Michigan and additional facilities in Waterville, Rossford, Findlay and Bowling Green, Ohio.
- Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare continues to dominate the field, now operating more than 340 urgent care clinics nationwide. Its latest acquisition includes 41 Texas-based centers from FastMed.
Urgent care fits squarely into health systems’ broader strategy to shift care upstream and out of the hospital. Three core drivers are behind the acquisition wave:
1. Filling care gaps. Urgent care centers offer accessible, same-day care, alleviating pressure on EDs and shortening wait times for primary care. They’re also critical for underserved and rural communities where hospital access is limited.
2. Cost and revenue optimization. These facilities operate at lower overhead compared to hospital outpatient departments. They serve as high-margin entry points that can funnel patients into specialty care and chronic disease management pipelines.
3. Market competition. By acquiring urgent care facilities, health systems can neutralize competition from independent operators and retail clinics, preserving patient loyalty and ensuring care continuity within their networks.
One of the most aggressive players in this space is GoHealth Urgent Care, which is forging strategic partnerships with health systems nationwide. Its recent joint ventures with UPMC, Community Health Network and Newark, Del.-based ChristianaCare aim to scale digitally integrated, co-branded centers that are deeply embedded within partner health systems’ clinical ecosystems.
Backed by private equity company TPG Growth, GoHealth’s partnership model has grown to include about 400 co-branded neighborhood centers across the country.
While the opportunity is clear, so too are the challenges. Health systems must carefully navigate staffing shortages that threaten operational scalability and provider coverage; reimbursement uncertainty as payers tighten margins, deny claims or shift toward narrow networks; and retail and payer disruption, with Amazon’s One Medical, CVS and Optum moving aggressively into primary and urgent care — often with more advanced digital platforms and consumer reach.
There’s also the risk of oversaturation in urban markets, as multiple players compete for the same pool of patients.
For health systems looking to stay competitive in the outpatient, value-based future, urgent care is no longer optional. It is a defining arena: one that touches strategy, branding, operations and financial performance. To win in this space, systems must go beyond acquisition and ensure that these centers are truly integrated — clinically, digitally and culturally — into their broader care delivery model.
As GoHealth CEO Todd Latz put it: “Today’s healthcare consumers expect frictionless, high-quality healthcare that fits their lives — care that is convenient, personal and connected.”
Urgent care may be the battleground, but the war is for patient loyalty, and it’s being fought one encounter, one experience and one network at a time.
