Walk-in clinics are popping up in shopping malls and main streets across the United States and private equity is helping fund the expansion, Reuters reported Thursday. At least a dozen private equity firms have in the last few years plowed millions of dollars into urgent care clinics, which have become popular with people who do not have regular doctors or who like the convenience of their extended hours of operation. Several private equity executives told Reuters they are eager for more acquisitions in this sector because they expect profits to grow as healthcare reforms boost the number of Americans with health insurance by more than 30 million over the next decade.

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Retail clinics are on the rise, with 1,425 retail clinics found in drugstore and retail settings in 39 states, according to Merchant Medicine, a Shoreview-based retail clinic consultancy and market research company.

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Telehealth is expected to experience a sharp rise in the number of patients, according a new report by health market research firm IHS, which projects that telehealth will reach 1.8 million patients around the world by 2017.

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When her new IT job required a tuberculosis test, Ginger Cason wasn’t sure where to turn.

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In 2007, Lee Scott, then Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s chief executive officer, trumpeted plans to open as many as 2,000 in-house medical clinics by mid-2012. He called the strategy “a great opportunity for our business.”

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Retail medical clinics in stores such as CVS and Walgreens can be a cheaper and more convenient option for patients seeking relief from minor ailments. But just how these clinics fit in to the country’s health care system, and how much they fragment an already disjointed system, is being debated by primary care physicians and retail clinic representatives.

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The popularity of "walk-in" medical clinics located in pharmacies, superstores and workplaces nationwide is increasing rapidly, according to a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll.

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Patients are not only open to pharmacy-based health clinics but tend to like them, according to the results of a NPR-Truven Health Analytics Health Poll detailed on NPR.com on November 5, 2012. This was true even of many respondents who have a regular primary care physician or health insurance.

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A report says retail clinics may be poised for strong growth, despite the number of openings being weaker in 2012 than the previous year.

There are two reasons for this. One is that operators believe that, in their efforts to add more primary care services and ally with local health systems, patients will keep them in mind beyond the fall and winter, when flu vaccinations and seasonal illnesses result in their highest traffic. The other is that with an increasing physician shortage and more patients set to gain insurance because of the Affordable Care Act, patients will find retail clinics a viable alternative when they can’t find physicians with open appointment slots.

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NEW YORK — What pharmacy lobbying groups and Drug Store News have been saying for a while has reached the mainstream.

The New York Times published an editorial over the weekend recommending that the country address its shortage of primary care doctors by relying more on other healthcare actors — such as pharmacists, nurse practitioners and patients themselves — as well as physician assistants and members of the community.

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