IL bill could choke retail clinic growth

Keeping up the battle between traditional medical practices and retail clinics, the Illinois State Medical Society is trying to help push through a measure that would severely cut down on the growth of such clinics in the state. The bill, the "Retail Health Care Facility Permit Act," is largely couched in terms that propose to protect the patient, including requirements the clinics communicate extensively with established primary care physicians, limit their scope of services and retain a medical director on staff. Despite these comparatively modest requirements, an earlier version [1] didn't pass during the 2007 legislative session.

This year, ISMS and its allies have raised the stakes. The new version of the bill slips in a provision under which retail clinics wouldn't be allowed to exist in stores that sell tobacco or alcohol products, drastically cutting down on the number of venues where the clinics can operate. This tactic, which also was proposed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino [2] in an effort to ban the clinics from the city, makes the real intentions of the Illinois State Medical Society fairly clear. The question, now, is whether legislators are as bent as they are on squeezing retail clinics out of the state.

To get background on this issue:
- read this medical society press release
[3]- read this AMNews article [4] (sub. req.)

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