Retail clinics: thousands on the way?

Tony Chen of the blog Hospital Impact has an interesting analysis of the CVS/MinuteClinic deal announced earlier this week. He quotes local papers that put the value of the transaction at $170 million, or about $2 million per existing clinic. With CVS's expansion plans for the low-cost, no-wait clinics, plus venture investment into similar companies, there will be thousands of them around within the next few years, posing serious competition to doctors and hospitals. If two to three people per hour use each one, they can be profitable, Chen opines. I think Chen is on the mark. Heck, if former Columbia Healthcare CEO Richard Scott and former AOL chairman Steve Case are in the business, then there's probably a good deal of money to be had.

For more background on this deal
- see Chen's blog