All South Carolina Medicaid patients soon will be able to use medical clinics in retail stores for wellness visits, preventive services and minor illnesses and injuries.

Beginning this month, the state is allowing CVS MinuteClinics and other retailers to enroll as providers in Medicaid, the state and federally funded health insurance program for low-income and disabled people.

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At the start of the year, Drug Store News predicted that 2012 would be a significant year for the convenient care industry as retail-based health clinics gear up for expansion and move closer to version 2.0. Well, that prediction is ringing true.

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. – With more Americans seeking health care under the health care reform law, in-store clinics are preparing for a boom in business and locations, the Los Angeles Times reports.

With the number of primary-care doctors unable to keep up with the estimated 30 million Americans who will receive health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, retail clinics will likely get a bump in customers. CVS Caremark Corp. and Target Corp., among other retailers, are ramping up their walk-in clinics staffed mostly by nurses who treat routine ailments.

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BOSTON — Massachusetts lawmakers passed a massive healthcare bill that seeks to control healthcare costs and expands the services of limited-service clinics to allow for anything within the scope of practice for a nurse practitioner.

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NEW YORK — With the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act extending health insurance to some 30 million Americans amid an already fragile primary care network, retail-based health clinics are likely to see an influx of patients turning to them for healthcare services.

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If you thought it was hard getting a doctor's appointment now, just wait until 30 million more Americans join the line.

Nearly 3 in 4 California counties already lack a sufficient number of family physicians, and by 2020 the U.S. faces an estimated shortage of 40,000 primary-care doctors with no way to remedy that in just a few years.

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Assuming that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will go into full effect, retail health clinics are getting ready for growing demand, KJZZ reported. For instance, retail clinics in Northern Arizona are expecting a major influx of patients now that the individual mandate has been ruled constitutional.

In recent years, walk-in health clinics have become commonplace in groceries and drugstores as well as at retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target. The clinics regularly treat acute problems such as strep throat and ear infections, but many are also adding primary care and preventive services such as physical exams and chronic disease monitoring.

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WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — At the start of the article titled "Retail Clinics and Drug store Medicine" published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, author Christine Cassell, a physician, acknowledges that retail-based clinics have been "criticized in some quarters" but states that, despite this, the clinics have experienced success by patient satisfaction and quality scores. The fact that this message is coming from a physician makes it especially important.

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Some view them simply as a doctor office visit without the long wait. Some physicians contend the public may not understand the truly narrow scope of the services they offer. They may also be seen as a small island of opportunity for physician assistants or nurse practitioners. Regardless, retail health clinics are on the rise and could end up bringing a good portion of the needed care to the roughly 30 million more insured patients that should come online once health care reform takes shape in 2014.

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