Massachusetts Insurance Firms To Cover Retail Health Clinic Visits

Boston, MA (AHN) - Some of the largest health insurance companies in Massachusetts say they plan to cover visits to retail health clinics that will open in CVS and Walgreens drugstores late this year.

The announcement follows the signing of contracts by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan with CVS Caremark, Woonsocket, R.I. Company, which runs more than 6,000 drug stores nationwide. CVS will also open 28 MinuteClinics througout the state in 2008 and 100 more within the next five years.

It will also arrange that its clinic services with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts be covered.

This development would likely make retail clinics into major healthcare providers since it will charges less compared with emergency rooms of hospitals and patients have to wait for shorter periods.

The contracts signs and those being negotiated stipulate retail clinic co-payment terms from $10 to $25, much lesser than the $50 to $150 charged for emergency room care.

Carolyn Castel, spokeswoman for CVBS, told the Boston Globe, "We have already contracted with some insurers and are in final stages of discussion with others... We see all of these negotiations moving positively."