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Health & Fitness

The proposed Medical Building on Highway 9 in Marlboro Township

Ambulatory care

With reference to the proposed new medical building which will be located on highway 9 in Marlboro Township, New Jersey. "Ambulatory care is a big and growing business. In 2012, private equity firms invested nearly $4 billion in health and medical services, a four-fold increase since 2009, with clinics and urgent care centers accounting for much of that growth. Minimal regulatory hurdles help make these attractive investments. Profits from privately owned retail clinics — such as CVS’s and The Clinic at Walmart — stem from revenues from new customers and greater sales of prescriptions and health-related products. Most often, these clinics serve low-income people who have delayed getting care and don’t have a doctor or usual source for getting care. Like retail clinics, the convenience of urgent care practices draws patients, though typically those with more serious medical needs. Research has shown that urgent care also attracts patients without a regular source of primary care. Health insurers looking to increase profits may promote using retail clinics and urgent care centers because they save the insurers money. But this is likely to leave physicians and community health centers to care for the chronically ill while clinics skim off high-value patients. The insurers’ push to avoid emergency departments, an essential part of the admissions process, will further squeeze hospital finances."

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