Retail clinic and urgent care center visits declined 12% nationwide from 2022 to 2023, a March 31 white paper from Fair Health found.
The report also found that ambulatory surgery center utilization decreased by 7%, and telehealth use declined by 3% over the same period. In contrast, emergency room utilization rose by 4%.
Here are six other key findings from the report:
- Emergency rooms accounted for the highest percentage of medical claim lines among studied care settings in 2023, comprising 4.3% of all claims.
- Telehealth followed at 3.8%, while urgent care centers, ASCs and retail clinics accounted for 1.9%, 1.0% and 0.2%, respectively. Traditional physician offices remained the predominant setting for medical services.
- Women continued to submit more claim lines than men in most age groups across ERs and alternative sites of care.
- Georgia ranked among the top five states for retail clinic and urgent care utilization but was not among the top five for telehealth.
- COVID-19 remained a common diagnosis across retail clinics, urgent care centers and telehealth, but declined in ranking.
- The median allowed amount for CPT code 99204 (new patient office or outpatient visit, 45-59 minutes) was highest in physician offices at $183, compared to $179 for urgent care centers and $138 for retail clinics.
The full report, FH Healthcare Indicators and FH Medical Price Index 2025: An Annual View of Place of Service Trends and Medical Pricing, is available on Fair Health’s website.
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