HSC Research Brief No. 31

Many privately insured people with an urgent medical problem go to hospital emergency departments (EDs) even though they could be treated safely and at lower cost elsewhere. Understanding why insured patients decide to seek care in EDs rather than other settings can help purchasers and payers safely guide patients to…

HSC Research Brief No. 26

As the U.S. health care system grapples with strained hospital emergency department (ED) capacity in some areas, primary care clinician shortages and rising health care costs, urgent care centers have emerged as an alternative care setting that may help improve access and contain costs. Growing to 9,000 locations in recent…

NIHCR Research Brief No. 13

Amid concerns about primary care provider shortages, especially in light of health reform coverage expansions in 2014, some believe that revising state laws governing nurse practitioners’ (NP) scope of practice is a way to increase primary care capacity. State laws vary widely in the level of physician oversight required for…

NIHCR Research Brief No. 10

Despite heightened employer interest in workplace clinics as a cost-containment tool, only 4 percent of American families in 2010 reported visiting a workplace clinic in the previous year—the same proportion as in 2007, according to a national study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). The severe 2007-09…