Urgent Care Video Statistics

Key takeaways

1. Patients’ and families’ own urgent care visit stories were 13.2% of the on-topic videos among YouTube’s most-viewed results for ‘urgent care’, ‘urgent care vs ER’ and ‘walk-in clinic’ but drew 76.5% of their views; the four most-viewed channels were all family or patient channels, with 71.7% (our read, Nov 10, 2026). (Mark Studios) See details
2. Urgent care and walk-in clinic operators posted 12.5% of those on-topic videos and drew 6.4% of the views; hospitals and health systems posted 22.1% and drew 5.5% (our read, Nov 10, 2026). (Mark Studios) See details
3. In the ‘urgent care vs ER’ results, operators, hospitals and health systems posted 50.0% of the on-topic videos and drew 68.1% of the views, or 49.2% without one 57-second NextCare video (our read). (Mark Studios) See details
4. Videos of 60 seconds or less were 35.7% of the on-topic videos and drew 89.3% of the views. In the year to Nov 10, 2026, the median U.S. urgent care chain, center or franchise channel in the sample posted 0.5 videos, and 5 of those 10 channels posted nothing (our read). (Mark Studios) See details
5. No single count of urgent care centers exists. The Urgent Care Association, the operators’ trade association, counts 15,101; the NPI registry lists 14,522 urgent care organization NPIs in the 50 states and D.C. (our count, Nov 10, 2026); Census counted 10,042 employer establishments in 2023 and BLS 9,145 in 2025 in NAICS 621493, a code urgent care centers share with surgery centers and freestanding emergency departments. (Several) See details
6. Florida has 1,466 urgent care organization NPIs, third among the states: 152 in Palm Beach County, 187 in Broward and 21 in Martin (our count from the NPI registry). The Urgent Care Association counts 1,052 Florida centers. (Mark Studios) See details
7. In 2025, 28.2% of U.S. adults had visited an urgent care center in the past 12 months, 19.8% a clinic in a drug store or grocery store and 20.8% a hospital emergency room (NCHS, National Health Interview Survey). (NCHS) See details
8. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants submitted 66.4% of the office visit services billed to Medicare Part B at urgent care facilities in 2024, family physicians 16.3% and emergency physicians 11.8% (our sums of CMS’s claims summary file, a lower bound). (CMS) See details
9. The “a tenth of an ER visit” line goes back, in the earliest ten-times form we found, to a July 2019 UnitedHealth Group brief on 10 conditions (10 times). The Health Care Cost Institute found 2022 averages of $220 for an urgent care visit and $2,256 for an ER visit, but a 2021 Health Affairs study found each $1,646 emergency visit avoided came with $6,327 more in urgent care costs. (Several) See details
10. Florida requires urgent care centers to post the prices of at least the 50 services they most often provide (Fla. Stat. 395.107), with fines of up to $1,000 a day for not posting. (Florida Legislature) See details
11. 59 SEC annual reports filed in 2025 said “urgent care”, after a peak of 77 in 2022; 35.6% of the 2025 filings also said “video” (our count with EDGAR full-text search). (Mark Studios) See details
12. CVS Health reported more than 800 MinuteClinic locations at the end of fiscal 2025, against approximately 1,100 at the end of fiscal 2020; Concentra said patient-directed urgent care was 2% of visits per day at its occupational health centers in fiscal 2025. (SEC filings) See details

How many urgent care centers are there? It depends on who counts

No official count of U.S. urgent care centers exists. The counts on this page differ by thousands because they count different things: the operators’ trade association counts centers it lists, the federal NPI registry counts billing identifiers, and Census and BLS count establishments in an industry code that urgent care centers share with ambulatory surgery centers and freestanding emergency departments. Use the one whose definition fits your question, and name it.

Florida shows the same spread: 1,052 centers in the trade association’s October 2026 table, 1,466 urgent care organization NPIs in our registry count, and 699 private establishments in the shared industry code in BLS’s 2025 figures.

Who makes the most-viewed urgent care videos on YouTube?

Patients and families telling their own urgent care visit stories drew 76.5% of the on-topic views when we read YouTube's 200 most-viewed results for each of 'urgent care', 'urgent care vs ER' and 'walk-in clinic' on November 10, 2026, while urgent care and walk-in clinic operators drew 6.4% and hospitals and health systems 5.5% (our calculation). We pulled the three view-sorted lists through the YouTube Data API on one day, with no country or language filter, and got 494 unique videos from 340 channels with 455.4 million lifetime views in all (455,418,994) (our calculation). The 'urgent care vs ER' list held only 127 unique videos, because YouTube returned the same videos on several result pages. The lists are YouTube's own ranking on that day, not a census; view counts are lifetime snapshots; we did not watch the videos. We classed every channel by hand from its own title, description and sample titles; we did not check anyone's licence.

Much of what the searches return is not about urgent care. 43.3% of the sample videos were off-topic or counted-only, with 42.3% of its views, leaving 280 on-topic videos (our calculation). 56 videos were emergency medicine, ambulance, first-aid or ER-career content that was not about urgent care, and the rest were TV drama, music, animals and other senses of the words. In the 'walk-in clinic' list, 62.6% of the videos were off-topic or counted-only, 70 of them local news about walk-in COVID-19 or flu vaccination sites; in the 'urgent care' list the share was 37.7%. 30 sample videos were ASMR roleplay, adult or sexual-title content; we count those without opening them and never name them.

The most-viewed urgent care videos are family vlogs. The four most-viewed channels in the on-topic sample were all family or patient channels and drew 71.7% of on-topic views; the ten most-viewed drew 86.4% (our calculation). Patients' and families' own visit stories were 13.2% of on-topic videos, from 34 channels, and family vlogs about taking a child or family member to urgent care alone drew 58.0% of on-topic views. In the 'urgent care' list, those stories drew 82.5% of on-topic views. We publish them as class and counts only. The named channels in the top ten were NextCareUrgentCare, Akana, Ascension, steveioe and CityMD.

Operators and hospitals own the 'urgent care vs ER' question. Urgent care operators, hospitals and health systems posted 50.0% of the on-topic videos in the 'urgent care vs ER' list and drew 68.1% of its on-topic views (our calculation). Much of that is one video: NextCare Urgent Care drew 3.7% of all on-topic views with a 57-second explainer, and that one video was 57.8% of the operator class's views. Without it, operators, hospitals and health systems drew 49.2% of the list's on-topic views, and media, news and general creators drew 23.3% with it in. Across the sample, 94 on-topic titles named both urgent care (or walk-in care) and the ER, and they drew 9.3% of on-topic views (our calculation; every title read).

Operators post more than they are watched. Urgent care and walk-in clinic operators came from 25 channels and posted 12.5% of on-topic videos; hospitals and health systems posted 22.1%, and 19 of their channels presented the system's own urgent care or walk-in clinics. 4 channels were freestanding emergency rooms, which are not urgent care centers, though their videos compare themselves with urgent care. Physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and nurses presenting under their professional names posted 12.9% of on-topic videos and drew 1.2% of on-topic views. Insurers, benefits companies, government agencies and NGOs together drew 0.1% (our calculation).

Media, news, podcast and general-creator channels posted 32.9% of on-topic videos and drew 10.2% of on-topic views. 13 of their videos were comedy sketches or standup about urgent care and walk-in clinics, with 7.6% of on-topic views. 11 on-topic titles were news of incidents at urgent care or walk-in clinics, such as shootings, assaults, firings and lock-ins. By title, 9 on-topic videos were about cost, bills, prices or insurance (our calculation; every flagged title read, false matches removed).

'Walk-in clinic' is partly a Canadian search. 22.5% on-topic videos in the 'walk-in clinic' list were about Canadian walk-in clinics, mostly Canadian news on wait times and closures plus a satire short, and they drew 64.3% of the list's on-topic views (our calculation). Media, news and general creators drew 64.9% of that list's on-topic views.

Short videos carried the views. 35.7% of on-topic videos ran 60 seconds or less, and they drew 89.3% of on-topic views; 41.4% were published in 2024 or later (our calculation). 20 of the 25 operator channels were U.S.-placed, by their own text or their country setting. 6 named on-topic channels gave a Florida place in their own text (Orlando Health, Sarasota Memorial, UF Health St. Johns, an Orlando urgent care and anti-aging center, a Treasure Coast orthopedic walk-in clinic and a pediatric emergency doctor); none named Palm Beach, Broward or Martin county.

We also read a full year of uploads from the 20 U.S.-placed operator channels. They posted 988 videos between November 10, 2025 and November 10, 2026, but the median channel posted 14.5 and 6 posted nothing (our calculation). One channel did most of the posting: Dr. Usha Jain Anti-Aging and Urgent Care Center, an Orlando channel, posted 544, which is 55.1% of the total, mostly short clips, and the three largest posters made 76.9%. The physician and orthopedic group channels made 24.8% of the year's uploads; the median of the urgent care chain, center, franchise and hybrid channels posted 0.5, and 5 of them posted nothing. 77.5% of the year's uploads ran 60 seconds or less, and the median upload had 1,128.5 views (our calculation). The counts cover each channel's uploads on any subject.

Patients' and families' own stories, staff and student vlogs, private people and children on video are published as class and counts only, and ASMR roleplay, adult and sexual-title videos are counted without being opened. We withheld 79 videos from the public files: 57 channels at channel level and 8 single videos in otherwise named channels, such as local news stories naming a child or teen (our calculation). The files are youtube-videos.csv (every sample video), youtube-channels.csv (every channel and its class) and youtube-us-urgent-care-channels.csv (the year of uploads).

Is an urgent care visit cheaper than an emergency department visit?

Per visit, yes, by a wide margin in the claims studies; per patient, not always. A 2021 Health Affairs study of 2008-19 claims from one national managed care plan found a tenfold higher price per visit at emergency departments than at urgent care centers for lower-acuity care (Health Affairs, Wang et al.). An older matched study of 2005-06 claims from a large Minnesota health plan, covering 2100 care episodes for ear infections, sore throats and urinary tract infections that started at retail clinics, put the average episode cost at $110 for retail clinics, $166 for physician offices, $156 for urgent care centers and $570 for emergency departments (Annals of Internal Medicine, Mehrotra et al., 2009). Episode costs there include follow-up visits, drugs and tests.

The emergency department side of the gap widened over time. In Aetna claims for members younger than 65, the inflation-adjusted price of an emergency department visit for a low-acuity condition rose 79%, from $914 in 2008 to $1637 in 2015, and that rise drove most of the growth in spending on low-acuity care (JAMA Internal Medicine, Poon et al., 2018).

A lower price per visit does not mean lower total spending. In the 2021 Health Affairs study, each $1,646 lower-acuity emergency department visit that was prevented was offset by a $6,327 increase in urgent care center costs (Health Affairs, Wang et al.). A 2023 study of Medicare beneficiaries by ZIP code found that by the sixth year after an urgent care center first served an area, 4.2% of beneficiaries there used one, per-capita annual Medicare spending in the ZIP code had risen $268, and the implied added spending was $6,335 for each new urgent care user, while mortality stayed flat (Journal of Health Economics, Currie et al.). Higher hospital spending made up half of that increase (Journal of Health Economics, Currie et al.). Medicare covers mostly people 65 and older and people with disabilities, so these Medicare results describe that group.

Do urgent care centers and retail clinics replace emergency department visits or add new ones?

Both happen, and the studies find more added use than replaced use. In the 2021 Health Affairs claims study (one national managed care plan, 2008-19), 37 additional urgent care center visits were associated with one fewer lower-acuity emergency department visit (Health Affairs, Wang et al.). A 2016 Health Affairs study of Aetna claims for 2010-12 found that 58 percent of retail clinic visits for eleven low-acuity conditions were new use of care rather than a substitute for an office or emergency visit, and that retail clinic use added $14 per person per year in spending (Health Affairs, Ashwood et al.).

Some studies do find emergency department visits falling where urgent care is open. A 2021 difference-in-differences study using state emergency department databases from six states found that an open urgent care center in a ZIP code cut residents' total emergency department visits by 17.2%, mostly for less-emergent conditions, and cut Medicaid emergency visits by 29.1% and uninsured visits by 21% (Health Services Research, Allen et al.). At two Boston academic medical centers (emergency visits from April 2016 to March 2018), patients living within 1 mile of an affiliated urgent care center had lower odds of a low-acuity emergency visit at one hospital (adjusted odds ratio 0.87) but not at the other (Annals of Emergency Medicine, Carlson et al., 2020). For retail clinics, a study of 2,053 emergency departments in 23 states from 2007 to 2012 found no reduction in low-acuity emergency visits overall; among privately insured patients the estimated effect was a 0.3% reduction (Annals of Emergency Medicine, Martsolf et al., 2017).

Among Medicare beneficiaries, urgent care was already a larger site for non-urgent care than the emergency department in fiscal 2012: in fee-for-service claims, 14% of non-urgent visits were at urgent care centers, 83% at physician offices and 3% at emergency departments, or 6.0 urgent care visits per 100 beneficiaries against 1.0 at emergency departments (American Journal of Medicine, Corwin et al., 2016).

How fast has use of urgent care and retail clinics grown?

In commercial claims, urgent care visits for minor conditions roughly doubled in eight years. Across 20.6 million acute care visits for low-acuity conditions by Aetna members younger than 65, urgent care center visits rose 119% (from 47 to 103 per 1000 members) between 2008 and 2015, retail clinic visits rose 214% (from 7 to 22 per 1000) and telemedicine went from 0 to 6 per 1000, while emergency department visits for the same conditions fell 36% (from 89 to 57 per 1000) (JAMA Internal Medicine, Poon et al., 2018).

Older adults followed. In a 20% sample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older, urgent care visits rose from 47.7 to 117.2 per 1000 beneficiaries between 2012 and 2019, and the share of urgent care patients managed by advanced practice practitioners (nurse practitioners and physician assistants) rose from 21.0% to 50.8% (JAMA Network Open, Mantilla et al., 2026). The sibling pages on nurse practitioners and physician assistants cover those clinicians. Retail clinic use among older adults stayed small: in 2015 Medicare claims for the Houston area, about 1.3% of beneficiaries used a retail clinic (Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, Abara et al., 2019).

Earlier retail clinic counts show where that growth started: an estimated 5.97 million U.S. retail clinic visits in 2009, four times the 2007 level, with 44.4 percent of 2007-09 visits on weekends or at weekday hours when physician offices are typically closed (Health Affairs, Mehrotra and Lave, 2012). In the federal National Health Interview Survey for 2022-2023, a latent class analysis of 56,181 adults put 17.7% of adults in an "urgent care users" class with high urgent care use and low emergency department use, and 15.7% in a "heavy health care users" class that used both (Annals of Emergency Medicine, Henein and Denham, 2026).

Where are urgent care centers located?

Mostly in urban, higher-income areas. A national cross-sectional study of 6898 non-hospital-based urgent care centers across 31,022 communities, using the Urgent Care Association of America's 2014 database (the operators' trade association, which sells memberships and accreditation), found that 75.7% of communities with a center were urban against 22.2% of those without one, and 38.6% were in the highest income quartile against 22.3% (BMJ Open, Le and Hsia, 2016). Use follows the same pattern among older adults: in 2018 and 2019, Medicare beneficiaries in rural communities had 45% lower adjusted urgent care use than those in urban communities (JAMA Network Open, Mantilla et al., 2026).

One niche segment has been counted repeatedly. Searches for musculoskeletal (orthopedic) urgent care centers found 558 in 2019, 596 in 2021 and 555 in 2023, with 90 openings and 95 closings since June 2019; the share accepting Medicaid rose from 58% to 71% (Medicine, Dlott et al., 2024).

How often do urgent care centers and retail clinics prescribe antibiotics?

Often, and rates vary widely by clinician. In the Intermountain Healthcare urgent care network, antibiotics were prescribed at 34% of 1.16 million urgent care encounters and at 50% of respiratory encounters, with individual providers' rates for respiratory encounters ranging from 3% to 94% (Clinical Infectious Diseases, Stenehjem et al., 2020). In one Chicago-area health system from July 2017 to June 2019, 57.9% of 41,380 urgent care visits for respiratory diagnoses got an antibiotic prescription against 32.9% of 9134 emergency department visits (JACEP Open, Zakharevich et al., 2022). Across 14.9 million acute respiratory infection visits in 2017 MarketScan commercial claims (people under 65, at retail clinics, urgent care centers, emergency departments and offices combined), 40% received an antibiotic (Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Bizune et al., 2023).

Retail clinics looked similar overall. Using the records of the three largest retail clinic chains and national survey data, a 2015 study counted 3 million acute respiratory infection visits at retail clinics, 167 million at primary care practices and 29 million at emergency departments from 2007 to 2009; the adjusted antibiotic prescribing rate was 58% at retail clinics, 62% at primary care practices and 59% at emergency departments, and for infections where antibiotics are never appropriate it was 34% at retail clinics against 51% and 48% (American Journal of Managed Care, Mehrotra et al.).

For children, a matched study of 2015-16 claims from a large national commercial health plan found antibiotics at 52% of direct-to-consumer telemedicine visits for respiratory infections, 42% of urgent care visits and 31% of primary care office visits; guideline-concordant antibiotic management was 59%, 67% and 78% (Pediatrics, Ray et al., 2019).

What do studies find about virtual urgent care?

The claims studies find similar antibiotic use for adults, more follow-up visits, and no drop in spending. Of direct-to-consumer telehealth visits for acute respiratory illness in commercial claims on over 300,000 patients (2011-13), an estimated 12 percent replaced visits to other providers and 88 percent were new use, and net annual spending on respiratory illness rose $45 per telehealth user (Health Affairs, Ashwood et al., 2017). In 2015-16 claims from a large national commercial insurer, 38,839 adult direct-to-consumer telemedicine visits for respiratory infections were compared with 942,613 matched primary care visits and 186,016 matched urgent care visits; antibiotic use was clinically similar, but telemedicine visits had less appropriate strep testing and more follow-up visits (Health Affairs, Shi et al., 2018). In one large commercial payer's claims for 2016-19, 10.3 percent of patients sought follow-up care within seven days after a direct-to-consumer telemedicine visit for a respiratory infection, against 5.9 percent after an in-person visit (Health Affairs, Li et al., 2021).

For children in 2022 OptumLabs commercial claims, antibiotics were given at 37.2% of telemedicine visits with direct-to-consumer companies against 28.9% of telemedicine visits with the child's own primary care practitioner (JAMA Network Open, Wittman et al., 2024).

Waits are where virtual and walk-in care are usually compared, and the published figures come from single systems. Kaiser Permanente's Southern California medical group reported waits 21.19 minutes shorter for its Get Care Now virtual urgent care than for its urgent care clinics, with 3-day returns to the emergency department of 2.53% after virtual visits and 3.26% after clinic visits; the authors work for the medical group and the abstract gives no sample size (npj Digital Medicine, Nguyen et al., 2025). In the Chicago-area system above, median length of stay was 41 minutes at urgent care against 178 minutes in the emergency department, and median waiting room time was 5 against 16 minutes (JACEP Open, Zakharevich et al., 2022).

We found no peer-reviewed study in PubMed that measures urgent care centers' own videos or their YouTube or TikTok content (searches run on November 10, 2026). The YouTube section of this page is our own count.

How many U.S. adults go to urgent care in a year?

28.2% of U.S. adults had at least one urgent care center visit in the past 12 months in 2025, according to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) run by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The survey interviews households across the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population and asks how many times each adult went to an urgent care center about their health. In 2024 the share was 27.3% (NCHS). In the same 2025 survey, 20.8% of adults had gone to a hospital emergency room (NCHS), so the urgent care share was 7.4 percentage points higher (our calculation). The emergency room share was 21.8% in 2019 (NCHS). These are shares of people with at least one visit, not counts of visits.

How many adults use a clinic in a drug store or grocery store?

19.8% of U.S. adults went to a clinic in a drug store or grocery store at least once in the past 12 months in 2025, by the same NCHS survey (NCHS). The 2024 figure was 21.2% (NCHS). These retail clinics are often staffed by nurse practitioners; the nurse practitioner page covers that workforce.

Has walk-in care use grown since 2019?

Yes, on the measure NHIS used until 2023. That question asked about “an urgent care center or a clinic in a drug store or grocery store” together. 28.8% of adults said yes in 2019 (NCHS), 26.5% in 2021 during the pandemic (NCHS), 32.5% in 2022 (NCHS) and 31.6% in 2023 (NCHS). From 2019 to 2023 that is a rise of 2.8 percentage points (our calculation). In 2024 NHIS split the question into urgent care centers and retail clinics, so the 2024 and 2025 figures above cannot be added together or compared with the combined series.

NCHS’s own Data Brief No. 409 put the 2019 share of adults with a visit in the past 12 months at 29.2% after age adjustment (NCHS), slightly above the unadjusted 28.8%. The brief found 32.3% of women and 26.0% of men had at least one visit in 2019 (NCHS).

Which adults use urgent care most?

Younger adults, women and people with private insurance, in NHIS 2025 (all figures: share of adults with at least one urgent care center visit in the past 12 months).

NHIS publishes no state or county figure in this table, so there is no federal survey share for Florida alone. The survey counts people, not visits, and does not say why anyone chose urgent care.

How often do children go to urgent care?

13.1% of U.S. children had two or more urgent care center visits in the past 12 months in 2025, as reported by a parent or other adult in NHIS (NCHS). NCHS’s child table publishes “two or more visits”, not “any visit”. In the same year 5.5% of children had two or more emergency room visits in the past 12 months (NCHS), so repeat urgent care use was 2.4 times as common (our calculation). On the older combined question, 12.7% of children had two or more urgent care or retail clinic visits in 2019 (NCHS). The pediatrician page covers children’s doctors.

How many emergency department visits are there, and how urgent are they?

U.S. hospital emergency departments had 155.4 million visits in 2022, the newest year NCHS has published, by its National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), a national sample of 16,025 visit records from 319 responding hospitals (NCHS). That is 47.3 visits per 100 people (NCHS). In 2019 the count was 150,650 thousand, or 150.7 million (NCHS).

Hospitals sort patients on arrival on a five-level triage scale. In 2022, 19.4% of visits were triaged level 4, semiurgent (NCHS), and 1.8% level 5, nonurgent (NCHS): 21.2% together (our calculation), or about 32.9 million visits (our calculation). That is a floor, because a third of visits had no triage or an unknown level. In 2019 the two levels were 21.2% (NCHS) and 2.7% (NCHS), 23.9% together (our calculation). A low triage level is a nurse’s arrival rating, not a finding that the visit belonged in urgent care; the origins section below covers the popular “could have gone to urgent care” numbers.

How long do emergency patients wait, and when do they arrive?

The median wait to see a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant in a U.S. emergency department was 16.0 minutes in 2022, per NHAMCS (NCHS). 56.3% of 2022 emergency visits began outside business hours, defined as Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (NCHS). NCHS publishes no comparable federal figures for urgent care centers: no federal survey samples urgent care visits the way NHAMCS samples emergency visits.

How many urgent care centers does the industry count?

The Urgent Care Association (UCA) counts 15,101 urgent care centers in the U.S. (UCA). UCA is the operators’ trade association and sells memberships, accreditation and benchmarking reports. It says the count comes from its affiliate Site Data Services and is updated monthly; it does not publish its definition of a center on the page. Its October 2026 state table adds up to the same 15,101, of which 8,840 are independent and 6,261, or 41.5%, hospital-affiliated (our calculation). UCA also says centers grew from 9,000 in 2016 to 15,000 in 2024 (UCA), and that 81% of centers sit in metropolitan areas by USDA commuting codes (UCA). Retail clinics are not in these counts. The federal establishment counts in the next sections use a different, shared industry code and do not match.

UCA also says more than 185 million patients (“185M+”) are cared for in urgent care each year (UCA), with no year or method on the page, and that 89.4% of the U.S. population lives within a 20-minute drive of a center, credited to a UCA member survey (UCA). Both are a trade association’s own claims.

How many urgent care centers does the industry count in Florida?

UCA counts 1,052 urgent care centers in Florida in October 2026, third among the states after Texas and California (UCA). That is 7.0% of its U.S. count (our calculation). 627 are independent and 425, or 40.4%, hospital-affiliated (our calculation). Texas leads with 1,389 (UCA). UCA publishes no county split, so there is no industry count for Palm Beach, Broward or Martin counties.

Does Florida keep a list of urgent care centers?

No public state list or count of urgent care centers turned up. Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) asks AI agents not to crawl its website, so we did not use its facility locator. Florida law defines urgent care centers for its price-posting rule (see the rules section), but that does not create a license list. An urgent care center may hold a health care clinic license, be exempt from one, or operate under a hospital’s license, so the trade association’s state table above is the only Florida count here, and it is the association’s own.

Who runs the most urgent care centers?

In UCA’s October 2026 rankings, the largest hospital-affiliated operator is HCA Healthcare’s group of linked brands, with 449 centers (UCA). The largest independent operator is Concentra, with 615 (UCA), followed by American Family Care with 399. Concentra describes most of its sites as occupational health centers, and the companies’ own SEC filings, covered in the filings section, count with their own definitions.

How many patients does an urgent care center see a day?

UCA reports an average of 33.96 patients per center per day in 2025, up from 33.13 in 2023 (UCA, 2025; UCA, 2023). The page gives no sample size. If all 15,101 centers saw that many patients on every day of the year, that would be about 187.2 million visits (our calculation), close to UCA’s “185M+” claim; real centers do not all open every day, so this is a rough check, not a count.

Experity, which sells electronic records and patient-booking software to urgent care centers, wrote in 2021 that visits at its client clinics hovered at about 32 per clinic per day in 2018 and 2019 (Experity). It said its customers logged 105,639 visits nationwide on July 6, 2020, during the COVID-19 testing surge (Experity), and that its data came from more than 5,700 client clinics (Experity). These are a seller’s figures from its own customers, not a sample of all centers. In November 2026 Experity’s homepage billed YouTube physician Doctor Mike as coming to its Urgent Care Connect 2027 conference (Experity), one sign that the software sellers court operators with video creators.

How many retail clinics are there?

RAND Health, a nonprofit research group, counted 2,737 retail clinics in U.S. stores in 2014, 74% of them in the South and Midwest (RAND). It wrote that the first retail clinics opened in 2000 and numbered close to 1,200 by 2010 (RAND). No newer public count from a neutral source turned up through an allowed route. The filings section reports what CVS Health and other operators say about their own clinic counts.

How many urgent care organizations hold an NPI?

The federal NPPES NPI Registry lists 14,522 active organization NPIs with the urgent care taxonomy (Clinic/Center, Urgent Care, code 261QU0200X) at practice locations in the 50 states and D.C., in our count from the registry’s public API on November 10, 2026 (our calculation). With Puerto Rico and the other territories the count is 14,596 (our calculation). 11,952 of the 50-state-and-D.C. NPIs list urgent care as their primary taxonomy; the rest list it beside another one, such as a primary care clinic or a hospital department (our calculation).

An NPI is a billing identity, not a building. One company can bill many centers under one NPI, one center can hold several NPIs, a hospital-run clinic may bill under the hospital’s number, and organizations choose their own taxonomy: CMS does not check that a holder runs a walk-in center, and a freestanding emergency department, which is not urgent care, could pick the same code. The count is therefore not a count of centers, and it differs from the center counts trade groups publish. NPPES changes daily, so a re-run gives slightly different numbers.

California has the most urgent care organization NPIs, 1,581, followed by Texas with 1,554 and Florida with 1,466 (our calculations). Florida ranks No. 3 among the states and D.C. (our calculation). In South Florida, Broward County has 187, Palm Beach County 152 and Martin County 21, placing each NPI by the ZIP code of its practice address (our calculations).

The registry also records when each NPI was first issued. 36.2% of the active urgent care organization NPIs in the 50 states and D.C. were issued in 2020 or later (our calculation). 696 were issued in 2025, against 661 still active from 2015 (our calculations). NPIs that were deactivated drop out of the registry search, so older years are undercounted and these figures are not a count of openings or closings.

How we counted: the API returns at most 200 results per call and can skip at most 1,000, so one query reaches no more than 1,200 NPIs. We ran one query per state, territory and military postal code. California, Florida and Texas went past that reach, so we split each by the first two digits of the ZIP code (and the Dallas-area 75 and 750 prefixes one digit further) until every slice ended on a short page, which means every slice was complete. The registry matches a state or ZIP against any address on the record, mailing or practice, so we removed duplicates and placed each NPI by its practice address. Our state and county counts are published as a CSV of counts only, with no names or addresses.

What does Medicare pay a clinician for an emergency department visit compared with an office visit?

In 2024 Medicare allowed an average of $85.37 for a routine established-patient office visit (CPT 99213) across all specialties (CMS), and $169.60 for the clinician’s part of the highest-level emergency department visit (CPT 99285) (CMS), 1.99 times as much (our calculation). A level 4 emergency visit (99284) allowed $114.81 (CMS), 1.34 times the office visit, and a level 3 visit (99283) $66.91 (CMS), 0.78 times it (our calculations). The figures come from CMS’s Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners by Geography and Service file, national rows, Part B fee-for-service claims only.

These are the clinician’s professional fees only. A hospital emergency department also bills a separate facility fee under Medicare’s hospital outpatient system, which this file does not contain, so an emergency visit costs Medicare far more than the professional figure shows. The “allowed” amount is what Medicare and the patient together owe the clinician; Medicare’s own payment is lower because the patient owes the Part B deductible and coinsurance.

From 2019 to 2024, before inflation, Medicare’s average allowed amount rose 19.6% for the 99213 office visit and 14.8% for 99214, while the level 5 emergency visit fell 1.0% (our calculations). Two code changes sit inside these years: CMS redefined the office visit codes for 2021 and the emergency department codes for 2023 (levels now set by the complexity of medical decision making), so a 2019 level and a 2024 level are not exactly the same service. Clinicians’ submitted charges, such as $1,232.25 for a level 5 emergency visit, are list prices; Medicare pays its fee schedule amount whatever the charge.

How many Medicare patients had emergency department and office visits?

In 2024, 18.6 million original Medicare beneficiaries (18,637,816) had a 99213 office visit (CMS) and 21.0 million (21,005,950) a 99214 office visit (CMS), across 64,778,139.1 and 95,439,230.1 services respectively (CMS, 99213; CMS, 99214). On the emergency side, 5.5 million (5,460,964) beneficiaries had a level 5 visit (CMS), 3,273,809 a level 4 visit (CMS) and 790,155 a level 3 visit (CMS), across 9,076,785, 4,531,103 and 980,310 services (CMS, 99285; CMS, 99284; CMS, 99283). A patient seen at two levels counts on both rows, so the beneficiary counts cannot be added.

Level 5 accounted for 57.3% of the beneficiary counts on the level 3-5 emergency rows in 2024, up from 52.9% in 2019 (our calculations). From 2019 to 2024 the beneficiary count on the level 3 row fell 62.3%, from 2,093,642 (CMS); level 4 fell 15.9%, from 3,892,338 (CMS); and level 5 fell 18.8%, from 6.7 million (6,722,865) (CMS) (our calculations). Office visits fell too, from 22.4 million (22,445,729) for 99213 (CMS) and 23.6 million (23,594,693) for 99214 (CMS). Much of the drop reflects the move of beneficiaries into Medicare Advantage, whose claims are not in this file, and part reflects the 2023 redefinition of the emergency codes; the file cannot show how many people went to urgent care instead.

Original Medicare covers mostly people 65 and older and people under 65 with long-term disabilities. Medicaid-only, privately insured and uninsured patients, and everyone in a Medicare Advantage plan, are not in these counts. The file has no billing modifiers, so it does not separate video visits from in-person ones.

Does Medicare’s public data separate urgent care centers?

Not in the files most analyses use. The Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners files split place of service only into “office” and “facility”, so a visit at an urgent care center sits inside the office totals above. The one public CMS Part B file we found that keeps the two-digit place-of-service code is the Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary (PSPS), where code 20 means “Urgent Care Facility”. Its 2024 edition has 21,870 summary lines for office and outpatient visit codes (CPT 99202-99205 and 99211-99215) billed with place of service 20 (CMS). CMS suppresses small cells in the 2024 file with an asterisk, so every sum below is a lower bound.

The PSPS lines with a published count show at least 2.0 million (2,004,917) submitted 99213 visits and at least 1.5 million (1,499,604) submitted 99214 visits billed at urgent care facilities in 2024 (our calculations), equal to at least 3.1% and 1.6% of the office-setting totals for those codes (our calculations). On the smaller set of lines where every count is published, Medicare’s allowed charges averaged $83.69 per allowed 99213 visit and $117.80 per allowed 99214 visit at an urgent care facility (our calculations), close to the all-office averages of $85.37 and $119.71.

Who bills those visits: nurse practitioners and physician assistants submitted 66.4% of the place-of-service-20 office and outpatient visit services with a published count in 2024, family practice physicians 16.3% and emergency medicine physicians 11.8% (our calculations, by the provider specialty on the claim). An NP or PA who bills “incident to” a physician appears under the physician, so the NP and PA share may be higher still. Only 0.3% of these services carried modifier 95, the telehealth modifier (our calculation); virtual urgent care billed from another place of service does not appear here at all. The nurse practitioner and physician assistant statistics pages cover those clinicians in detail.

How many people work in freestanding surgical and emergency centers, and what are they paid?

BLS’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages averaged 182,772 jobs in private U.S. establishments in NAICS 621493 in 2025 (BLS). That code is freestanding ambulatory surgical and emergency centers, which urgent care centers share with surgery centers and freestanding emergency departments. The average weekly wage there was $1,475 (BLS), and average annual pay was $76,686 (BLS). Both figures cover every job in the code, from surgeons to front-desk staff, so they are not clinician pay.

In Florida, the code averaged 12,635 private jobs in 2025 (BLS), with an average weekly wage of $1,309 (BLS): $166 a week below the U.S. average (our calculation). Palm Beach County averaged 609 jobs (BLS) at $1,394 a week (BLS), and Broward County 634 jobs (BLS) at $1,396 a week (BLS). BLS does not publish Martin County’s figures for this code.

Which clinicians work in outpatient care centers?

BLS’s Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey does not publish staffing for NAICS 621493 or 621490. Its smallest published industry here is outpatient care centers (NAICS 6214), which includes freestanding surgical and emergency centers (and so urgent care centers outside physician offices) along with dialysis, mental health and substance abuse, family planning, HMO and community health centers. The figures below are for that whole group, not for urgent care.

OEWS estimated 1.2 million wage and salary jobs (1,182,730) in U.S. outpatient care centers in May 2025 (BLS). Registered nurses held 173,380 of them (BLS), or 14.7% (our calculation), and medical assistants (SOC 31-9092) 85,840 (BLS), or 7.3% (our calculation). There were 33,840 physician jobs of all specialties (BLS), including 3,270 emergency medicine physicians (BLS), and 16,150 radiologic technologist and technician jobs (BLS).

In May 2025, nurse practitioners (SOC 29-1171) held 31,590 jobs in outpatient care centers (BLS) and physician assistants (SOC 29-1071) 14,980 (BLS): 1.38 NP and PA jobs for every physician job there (our calculation). In May 2025, outpatient care centers employed 9.8% of the 323,040 U.S. wage and salary nurse practitioners (BLS) (our calculation), and 10.5% of the 817,870 medical assistants (BLS) (our calculation). The 162,150 U.S. wage and salary physician assistants in May 2025 (BLS) are covered on our physician assistant video statistics page, and nurse practitioners on our nurse practitioner video statistics page.

Median annual wages in outpatient care centers in May 2025 were $153,500 for physician assistants (BLS), $139,320 for nurse practitioners (BLS) and $48,560 for medical assistants (BLS). OEWS counts wage and salary jobs that employers report. It leaves out clinicians who own their practices, and BLS advises against comparing its estimates across years.

Is there an industry code for urgent care centers?

No. The 2022 North American Industry Classification System manual lists “urgent medical care centers and clinics (except hospitals), freestanding” under NAICS 621493, Freestanding Ambulatory Surgical and Emergency Centers (Census). The same code holds ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency departments and freestanding trauma centers. Freestanding emergency departments are not urgent care, but the federal counts cannot separate them. Urgent care run by a hospital is counted with the hospital, and an urgent care practice set up as a physician office can sit in offices of physicians (NAICS 621111) instead. Every count in this section is for the whole shared code: it is neither a count of all urgent care centers nor a count of urgent care centers alone.

How many freestanding surgical and emergency centers are there in the U.S.?

BLS’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which counts employers covered by unemployment insurance, averaged 9,145 private establishments in NAICS 621493 in the U.S. in 2025 (BLS). That is freestanding ambulatory surgical and emergency centers, a code urgent care centers share with surgery centers and freestanding emergency departments. They averaged 182,772 jobs in 2025, all staff and not only clinicians, or 20.0 jobs per establishment (our calculation).

The Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns counted 10,042 U.S. employer establishments in the same code in 2023, the newest year available when we checked (Census). The 2022 Economic Census counted 10,119 (Census). These are three different counts with different years and methods, so they do not match exactly. None of them counts centers with no paid staff. Census’s Nonemployer Statistics does not publish this code at all. For the wider group of outpatient care centers (NAICS 6214), it counted 19,630 U.S. businesses with no paid employees in 2024 (Census), 2.0% more than the 19,244 it counted in 2023 (Census) (our calculation). A nonemployer can be any business with no paid staff, including side income, so that figure is not a count of clinics.

How many are there in Florida and in Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties?

QCEW averaged 699 private establishments in NAICS 621493 in Florida in 2025 (BLS), 7.6% of the U.S. total (our calculation). Florida’s count was 605 in 2014 (BLS), so it rose 15.5% from 2014 to 2025 (our calculation). The U.S. count rose from 5,567 in 2014 (BLS), up 64.3% (our calculation). U.S. jobs in the code rose from 117,335 in 2014 (BLS), up 55.8% (our calculation).

In 2025, QCEW averaged 52 private establishments in the code in Palm Beach County (BLS), 66 in Broward County (BLS) and 5 in Martin County (BLS): 123 across the three counties (our calculation). BLS does not publish Martin County’s employment or wages in this code, to protect individual employers. County Business Patterns counted 60 employer establishments in Palm Beach County in 2023 (Census), 60 in Broward County (Census), 8 in Martin County (Census) and 871 in Florida as a whole (Census). These are still the shared code: surgery centers and freestanding emergency departments are included.

How many centers are there per 100,000 residents?

The United States had 2.68 private establishments in NAICS 621493 per 100,000 residents in 2025 (our calculation, from QCEW establishments and the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 population estimate of 341.8 million, 341,784,857 (Census)). Florida had 2.98 (our calculation; 23,462,518 residents (Census)). Palm Beach County had 3.30 (our calculation; 1,575,726 residents (Census)), Broward County 3.28 (our calculation; 2,013,317 residents (Census)) and Martin County 3.01 (our calculation; 166,272 residents (Census)). Martin County’s rate rests on 5 establishments, so one opening or closing moves it a lot.

How has the number of these centers changed since 1998?

County Business Patterns counted 2,561 U.S. employer establishments in NAICS 621493 in 1998, the first year it used NAICS codes (Census). It counted 5,148 in 2008 (Census), 7,716 in 2018 (Census) and 10,042 in 2023: 3.9 times the 1998 count (our calculation). Florida went from 264 in 1998 (Census) to 871 in 2023, 3.3 times as many (our calculation). Census does not adjust these counts for changes in its methods, and the series cannot show how much of the growth came from urgent care rather than surgery centers or freestanding emergency departments.

How much revenue do these centers take in, and for what?

U.S. employer establishments in NAICS 621493 took in $44.1 billion ($44,080,482 thousand) in 2022, per the 2022 Economic Census (Census). That total is for the whole shared code. Census publishes no line that separates emergency or urgent care revenue from outpatient surgery. It does split patient care revenue by the patient’s main diagnosis. Musculoskeletal diagnoses brought in $9,529,784 thousand (Census), 21.6% of the total (our calculation), and eye diagnoses $6,761,362 thousand (Census), 15.3% (our calculation). Both are typical of surgery centers. Respiratory diagnoses, the kind of visit common in urgent care, brought in $2,750,366 thousand (Census), 6.2% (our calculation), and injury and poisoning $2,463,868 thousand (Census), 5.6% (our calculation).

The same census counted 1,669 establishments in the code that reported any revenue from telemedicine services in 2022 (Census): 16.5% of the 10,119 (our calculation). Census does not say how much of their revenue came from telemedicine, and its term covers telemedicine in general, not video visits specifically.

How much do outpatient care centers spend on advertising?

U.S. outpatient care centers (NAICS 6214) spent $1.3 billion ($1,283,860 thousand) on advertising and promotion in 2024, per the Census Bureau’s Annual Integrated Economic Survey (Census). That was 0.57% of their total operating expenses (our calculation). Census publishes this figure only for the whole outpatient care center group, which also includes dialysis, mental health, family planning and community health centers, so it is not urgent care spending. The survey does not split advertising by medium, so it says nothing about spending on video.

What do public urgent care operators tell investors about their centers?

Few public companies give an urgent care center count, and the largest hospital operators fold urgent care into wider totals: Ardent Health's fiscal 2025 Form 10-K reports 45 urgent care centers (Ardent 10-K), while HCA Healthcare's fiscal 2025 report lists urgent care facilities and walk-in clinics among its sites without a number (HCA 10-K). Each figure below is the company's own statement in its annual report on SEC EDGAR; every one of these companies sells the care it describes, so none is an independent count. We read each company's newest Form 10-K, plus older reports for trends.

Ardent Health's fiscal 2025 report says it bought 18 urgent care clinics in New Mexico and Oklahoma on January 1, 2025 for a combined $27.5 million (Ardent 10-K), so its net gain of five centers between the fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 reports also reflects closures or consolidations. The same fiscal 2025 report names the MyChart portal and on-demand video visits among the tools it uses to win and keep patients (Ardent 10-K).

HCA Healthcare's fiscal 2025 report says the number of surgery centers, emergency departments, urgent care centers and other facilities in its markets continues to increase (HCA 10-K). Community Health Systems' fiscal 2025 report lists urgent care centers next to direct-to-consumer virtual health visits in its outpatient plans (CHS 10-K), and says competition from urgent care centers and other outpatient providers has grown with price transparency initiatives (CHS 10-K). In its fiscal 2015 report, American CareSource said it aimed to grow revenue at its centers through marketing, advertising and rebranding (American CareSource 10-K).

How much of Concentra's business is urgent care?

Very little, by its own measure: patient-directed urgent care, which Concentra calls consumer health services, was 2% of visits per day at its occupational health centers in each of fiscal 2023, 2024 and 2025 (Concentra 10-K). Concentra's centers saw approximately 13.5 million patient visits in fiscal 2025, about 53,000 a business day (Concentra 10-K), up from approximately 13 million in fiscal 2024 (Concentra 10-K, fiscal 2024). At 2% of visits, urgent care came to roughly 270,000 of the fiscal 2025 visits; both inputs are rounded by Concentra, so this is an approximation (our calculation).

• Concentra defines consumer health services as support of patient-directed urgent care treatment of injuries and illnesses (fiscal 2025 report) (Concentra 10-K).
• It ran 628 stand-alone occupational health centers and 411 onsite employer clinics at the end of fiscal 2025 (Concentra 10-K), against 552 centers at the end of fiscal 2024 (Concentra 10-K, fiscal 2024): 13.8% more centers in a year (our calculation).
• Its fiscal 2025 report says conventional urgent care faces significant challenges due to labor costs and declining economics (Concentra 10-K), and names American Family Care, CareNow and GoHealth as consumer-focused urgent care competitors (Concentra 10-K).
• Employees have used Concentra Telemed since 2017 to reach its clinicians using video technology (fiscal 2025 report) (Concentra 10-K); the service covered 43 states and the District of Columbia at the end of fiscal 2025 (Concentra 10-K).
• Most of its patients work for one of approximately 200,000 employer customers (fiscal 2025 report) (Concentra 10-K): Concentra sells to employers and workers' compensation payors more than to walk-in patients.

What do CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Amazon report about their clinics?

The retail clinic chains have shrunk: CVS Health operated more than 800 MinuteClinic locations at the end of fiscal 2025, staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants (CVS 10-K), against approximately 1,100 at the end of fiscal 2020 (CVS 10-K, fiscal 2020), about 300 fewer (our calculation; both figures are rounded by CVS). The count was more than 1,000 at the end of fiscal 2023 (CVS 10-K, fiscal 2023) and more than 900 at the end of fiscal 2024 (CVS 10-K, fiscal 2024).

• CVS Health's fiscal 2025 report says MinuteClinic also offers virtual care services that connect customers with licensed providers remotely (CVS 10-K). Its net advertising costs, for the whole company, were $970 million in fiscal 2025 (CVS 10-K); the report does not split out MinuteClinic advertising.
• Walgreens described VillageMD, in which it held a majority position, as a provider with primary, multi-specialty and urgent care providers seeing patients in clinics, at home and online (fiscal 2024 report, year ended August 31, 2024) (Walgreens 10-K). Its U.S. Healthcare segment had 464 healthcare locations on August 31, 2024 (Walgreens 10-K). In fiscal 2024 Walgreens took a $12.4 billion non-cash impairment charge related to VillageMD goodwill and planned clinic closures (Walgreens 10-K), in a year when VillageMD sales, including CityMD's parent Summit, rose to $6.2 billion (Walgreens 10-K). This fiscal 2024 report is the last Walgreens 10-K on EDGAR as of November 10, 2026.
• Walmart's fiscal 2024 report, filed in March 2024, refers to "the Walmart Health locations" (Walmart 10-K, fiscal 2024). Its fiscal 2025 report does not use the name Walmart Health; urgent care appears there only as an employee benefit, free virtual visits for medical doctor urgent care (Walmart 10-K, fiscal 2025). Its fiscal 2026 report, filed March 13, 2026, does not contain the phrase “urgent care” at all (our read).
• Amazon's fiscal 2025 report says it bought One Medical (1Life Healthcare) on February 22, 2023 for approximately $3.5 billion in cash, net of cash acquired (Amazon 10-K); it gives no One Medical office or visit count.

What do virtual urgent care companies report about visits, video and advertising?

Teladoc completed 17.1 million telehealth visits of all kinds in fiscal 2025 (Teladoc 10-K), and its fiscal 2025 report says 90% of its virtual urgent care visits occur within thirty minutes of a member's request (Teladoc 10-K). These are Teladoc's own figures for a service it sells to employers and health plans.

LifeMD's fiscal 2024 report lists YouTube among its marketing channels, next to national TV, streaming TV, podcasts and social media (LifeMD 10-K, fiscal 2024). None of these companies reports how much of its advertising goes to video.

How often do annual reports on EDGAR mention urgent care, and video with it?

59 Form 10-K annual reports filed in 2025 (mostly fiscal 2024 reports) contained the phrase "urgent care", by our count with SEC EDGAR full-text search, up from 12 filed in 2001 (our calculation). The count peaked at 77 filings in 2022, and 53 more were filed in 2026 through November 10, the day we searched (our calculation). From 2001 to 2025, 1,079 filings from 282 registrants contained the phrase (our calculation). Only 16 of the 59 filed in 2025 came from health services companies; the rest include insurers, staffing firms, shopping-center landlords and drug makers (our calculation).

• "Video" or "videos" appeared with "urgent care" in 21 of the 59 filings made in 2025, 35.6%, against 19.2% in 2015; across 2001 to 2025, 17.2% of the filings had both words (our calculation).
• "Telehealth" appeared with "urgent care" in 28 filings made in 2025, after a peak of 38 in 2022; in 2019 it was 6 (our calculation).
• 2 filings made in 2025 paired "urgent care" with "YouTube": LifeMD's and KindlyMD's fiscal 2024 reports (our calculation).

We read the passages around both words in all 21 filings made in 2025 that contain "urgent care" and "video" or "videos" (our calculation). 9 use "video" for care delivered by video, such as video visits or telehealth consultations (our calculation). 4 use it for marketing, advertising or educational content (our calculation). The other 8 use it for unrelated things, such as video games, the Video Privacy Protection Act or video interpretation services (our calculation). Only 2 of the 21 come from companies that run urgent care centers for people, Concentra and Ardent Health; in the rest, urgent care is a customer, competitor, covered benefit or a line in an executive's biography (our calculation). Annual reports, in short, describe video as a way to deliver care far more often than as a way to market urgent care. The year-by-year counts and our reading of each filing are published as CSV files with this page.

What rules apply to urgent care prices, ads and video visits?

In Florida, an urgent care center that does not publish and post its schedule of charges faces a fine of not more than $1,000 per day until it does, under s. 395.107(6) of the Florida Statutes as read on November 10, 2026 (Florida Statutes). Each rule below is dated and quoted from its own text: Florida’s urgent care price-posting law and definition, Florida’s signage and advertising rules for freestanding emergency departments, two Florida insurance statutes that name urgent care, Florida’s telehealth law, the federal No Surprises Act rules for uninsured and self-pay patients, EMTALA, Medicare place-of-service codes and telehealth dates, HIPAA, the FTC’s Endorsement Guides and YouTube’s health policies. This is a summary of what the texts say, not legal advice. Florida statutes were read on Online Sunshine and the session laws on laws.flrules.org on November 10, 2026; federal rules on eCFR, GovInfo, the Federal Register and cms.gov the same day.

What does Florida’s urgent care price-posting law require?

Section 395.107 makes a Florida urgent care center post a schedule of the prices it charges an uninsured person paying by cash, check, credit card or debit card, in plain language, in a conspicuous place in the reception area (s. 395.107). As read November 10, 2026, the law sets these numbers:

One rule reaches advertising directly. An urgent care center affiliated with a licensed hospital must say whether its charges will be the same as, or more than, the hospital’s, and that notice must appear in all media and Internet advertisements for the center (s. 395.107). The statute does not name video, so the text reads as covering video ads along with every other medium. A licensed health care clinic that counts as an urgent care center has a parallel duty under s. 400.9935(1)(i), with the same fine of not more than $1,000 per day (Florida Statutes).

The law is older than most urgent care chains’ websites. Chapter 2011-122, Laws of Florida (CS/CS/HB 935), created s. 395.107 and took effect July 1, 2011 (Laws of Florida). The 2011 version already set the per-day fine; it then defined an urgent care center as giving immediate but not emergent care to patients with or without an appointment (Laws of Florida). Chapter 2012-160 (CS/CS/HB 787), approved April 27, 2012, rewrote that definition, added the plain-language rule and allowed electronic boards (Laws of Florida). As read November 10, 2026, the section’s history note ends with chapter 2016-234, so no law has changed it since 2016 (Florida Statutes).

Under today’s definition, s. 395.002(30), a Florida urgent care center gives immediate but not emergent ambulatory care. The term covers hospital off-site facilities and hospital joint ventures that take walk-ins, and licensed clinic organizations that keep three or more locations under the same or a similar name, take walk-ins and present themselves as giving immediate care (s. 395.002). A single independent walk-in clinic with no hospital tie falls outside that definition.

How does Florida keep freestanding emergency rooms from looking like urgent care?

Since July 1, 2021, under chapter 2021-112, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 1157), a hospital-based off-campus emergency department may not hold itself out to the public as an urgent care center and must carry lighted signs with “EMERGENCY” or “ER” and the hospital’s name (Laws of Florida; s. 395.1041). These freestanding emergency departments are not urgent care centers, and the law makes them say so:

• Unless they share a premises and entrance with an urgent care center, their signs must read “THIS IS NOT AN URGENT CARE CENTER. HOSPITAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT RATES ARE BILLED FOR OUR SERVICES.” (s. 395.1041)
• Those signs must be at least 2 square feet, with text in at least 36 point type, and must give the average facility fee and warn that the facility or a physician may be out of network (s. 395.1041).
• Any advertisement for such a department must say “This is not an urgent care center. Its services and care are billed at hospital emergency department rates.” unless it also advertises an urgent care center on the same premises (s. 395.1041).
• A billboard of at least 200 square feet must name the hospital’s emergency department in contrasting text at least 15 inches high (s. 395.1041).

The same section makes Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration post, and update every year, a description of how a freestanding emergency department differs from an urgent care center, with at least two examples of what nonemergent care costs in each setting and a tool to find local urgent care centers (s. 395.1041). It also makes an emergency department or urgent care center that treats and releases a person after a suspected or actual overdose report it to the Department of Health, using best efforts to do so within 120 hours (s. 395.1041).

What do Florida’s insurance statutes say about urgent care?

Florida’s balance-billing statute for health insurers, s. 627.64194, counts “an urgent care center as defined in s. 395.002” as a facility, so an insured person owes a nonparticipating provider of covered emergency services only copayments, coinsurance and deductibles (Florida Statutes). Under s. 627.6405, insurers must post, and update every year, information on appropriate use of emergency care, starting with a list of alternative urgent care contracted providers and a tool to locate in-network and out-of-network urgent care centers (Florida Statutes). The same statute lets insurers charge higher copayments for urgent care or primary care provided in an emergency department, but not for using the emergency department for emergency care (s. 627.6405).

What must urgent care tell uninsured and self-pay patients about price under federal law?

The No Surprises Act rules for uninsured and self-pay individuals, 45 CFR 149.610, apply to good faith estimates requested, or services scheduled, on or after January 1, 2022 (45 CFR 149.610). They bind providers and facilities in general and do not single out urgent care. When a patient asks, the estimate is due no later than 3 business days after the request (45 CFR 149.610); when a service is scheduled at least 3 business days ahead, it is due no later than 1 business day after scheduling (45 CFR 149.610). Notice that estimates are available must be prominently displayed, and easily searchable from a public search engine, on the website, in the office and on-site (45 CFR 149.610). On request, providers must hand over any estimate issued within the last 6 years (45 CFR 149.610).

If the bill comes in at least $400 above the expected charges on the estimate, the patient can start federal patient-provider dispute resolution (45 CFR 149.620), within 120 calendar days of receiving the first bill (45 CFR 149.620).

Do surprise-billing protections and EMTALA reach urgent care centers?

The federal surprise-billing rules for emergency services are written around hospital emergency departments and independent freestanding emergency departments. 45 CFR 149.30 defines the latter as a facility that is geographically separate and distinct and licensed separately from a hospital and that provides emergency services (45 CFR 149.30); the word “urgent care” does not appear in the section. For non-emergency services the same section lists 4 kinds of “health care facility”: a hospital, a hospital outpatient department, a critical access hospital and an ambulatory surgical center (45 CFR 149.30). A stand-alone urgent care center is not on that list; one run as a hospital outpatient department would be.

EMTALA, the federal law that obliges Medicare hospitals to screen and stabilize emergency patients, applies to a hospital’s “dedicated emergency department”. Under 42 CFR 489.24(b), a hospital department on or off campus qualifies if it is licensed as an emergency department, if it is held out to the public by name, signs or advertising as a place for emergency care without an appointment (42 CFR 489.24), or if in the prior calendar year at least one-third of its outpatient visits were for emergency conditions on an urgent basis (42 CFR 489.24). An independent urgent care center is not a hospital department; a hospital-owned walk-in site that advertises emergency care can become one.

How does Medicare code urgent care, retail clinics and video visits?

On professional claims, CMS’s place-of-service code 20, “Urgent Care Facility”, took effect January 1, 2003; it describes a location distinct from a hospital emergency room, an office or a clinic, for unscheduled, ambulatory patients seeking immediate attention (CMS). Code 17, “Walk-in Retail Health Clinic”, covers a clinic inside a retail operation giving preventive and primary care, with a final effective date of May 1, 2010 (CMS). Code 10, telehealth with the patient at home, took effect January 1, 2022 and became available to Medicare on April 1, 2022 (CMS).

Section 6209 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (Public Law 119-75, approved February 3, 2026) extended Medicare’s telehealth flexibilities, including the patient’s home as a site, through the period ending December 31, 2027 (Public Law 119-75).

What does Florida’s telehealth law say about video visits?

Florida’s telehealth law, s. 456.47, defines telehealth as the use of synchronous or asynchronous telecommunications technology by a telehealth provider to provide health care services (Florida Statutes). A provider whose remote evaluation is enough to diagnose and treat does not have to do a physical examination before treating by telehealth (s. 456.47). Medical records from telehealth, including video, audio, electronic or other records, are confidential (s. 456.47). The nurse practitioner and physician assistant pages cover who may practice in a virtual urgent care visit.

What rules apply to patient faces and testimonials in urgent care videos?

Under HIPAA, an urgent care center that bills electronically is a covered entity, and it must obtain an authorization from the patient before using protected health information for marketing, except face-to-face communications and promotional gifts of nominal value (45 CFR 164.508). HIPAA’s de-identification standard lists full face photographic images and comparable images among the identifiers to remove (45 CFR 164.514), so a recognisable patient in a clinic video is identifiable health information.

The FTC’s revised Endorsement Guides, 16 CFR Part 255, took effect July 26, 2023 and treat a patient testimonial in an ad as an endorsement (Federal Register). If an advertiser cannot show a patient’s experience is typical, the ad should clearly disclose the generally expected performance (16 CFR 255.2); in a video, a disclosure should appear in both the visual and audible portions (16 CFR 255.0).

What do YouTube’s health policies require?

YouTube’s medical misinformation policy, as read November 10, 2026, bars content that poses a serious risk of egregious harm by contradicting local health authority (LHA) guidance about specific health conditions and substances (YouTube Help). Some health videos carry an information panel under the video giving context on the source (YouTube Help). To apply as a health source, a channel needs more than 1,500 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, or 1.5 million valid public Shorts views in the past 90 days (YouTube Help), and the eligible licensed professions start with “Licensed Doctor” (YouTube Help).

What do the popular urgent care numbers really say?

Four claims travel through urgent care websites, insurer pages and marketing guides: that an urgent care visit costs about a tenth of an ER visit, that there are more than 14,000 urgent care centers, that up to 27% of emergency department visits could be handled at urgent care centers or retail clinics, and that video lifts conversions by 80%. We read each at its source and say below what that source measured. Pages that repeat a number are linked only as dated evidence of how it spread, never as a source for the number.

“An urgent care visit costs about a tenth of an ER visit”

The ten-to-one ratio is an insurer’s average for a short list of conditions, and the gap depends on the year, the payer and the diagnosis. The earliest dated form of the ten-times wording we found is UnitedHealth Group’s July 2019 brief on avoidable emergency visits, which said the hospital ED cost of treating a list of common primary-care-treatable conditions was 10 times higher than at an urgent care center (UnitedHealth Group). Its ED average for those conditions was $2,032 (UnitedHealth Group). Both figures come from UnitedHealthcare’s 2018 claims for people with employer coverage, for bronchitis, cough, dizziness, flu, headache, low back pain, nausea, sore throat, strep throat and upper respiratory infection only. An insurer that wants members to use cheaper sites published them.

The industry’s own earlier estimates were smaller. In January 2009 the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine (JUCM), then also president of the operators’ association, used a “conservative” three times multiple of ED over urgent care cost to project savings (JUCM), next to an average ED payment of $560 from 2003 data (JUCM). In October 2012 the same editor put the average urgent care visit at $118, citing the association’s 2010 benchmarking study (JUCM), against $500 to $600 per ED visit for urgent-care-type conditions, from no named study (JUCM).

UnitedHealthcare’s member page has carried the comparison since at least 2021. In a June 2021 capture it gave an average urgent care visit of $180 (UnitedHealthcare, archived) and an average ER visit of $2,200 (UnitedHealthcare, archived), both 2019 average allowed amounts at its network providers. Its 2026 page gives 2025 medians of $195 for urgent care (UnitedHealthcare) and $2,750 for the ER (UnitedHealthcare), not tied to any condition. For people without insurance the same page gives medians of $377 for urgent care (UnitedHealthcare, citing Mira) and $2,863 for the ER (UnitedHealthcare, citing Mira), from Mira, a company that sells cash-pay care memberships. The uninsured gap is narrower than the insured one.

The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), a nonprofit that also sells custom data analysis, measured prices across employer-insured claims. In its January 2026 brief the average urgent care visit price reached $220 in 2022 (HCCI), while the average ER evaluation and management visit reached $2,256 (HCCI). By diagnosis the gap ranged widely: a urinary tract infection visit at urgent care was over 10 times cheaper than at the ER (HCCI), and an infectious disease exposure visit around 5 times cheaper (HCCI). Repeaters round this to one figure. A February 2026 post by Fast Track Urgent Care, an operator, links the HCCI brief and then says urgent care in many cases costs a tenth of an ER visit (Fast Track Urgent Care), and a November 2025 California Insider article says an urgent care visit is about one-tenth the cost of an ER visit, with no source for the ratio (California Insider).

Use instead: “Among people with employer insurance in 2022, HCCI found an average urgent care visit price of $220 and an average ER visit price of $2,256; by diagnosis, the ER cost from about 5 times to over 10 times as much.” Name the payer and year, and say these are prices for different mixes of patients, not the same visit in two places.

“There are more than 14,000 urgent care centers”

The figure is the Urgent Care Association’s, and its counting method changed over time. The association (UCA, earlier UCAOA) is the operators’ trade association and sells memberships, accreditation and benchmarking reports. Its 2023 industry white paper said there were over 14,000 urgent care centers in the U.S. (UCA), the earliest dated form of that wording we found, and counted 14,382 in mid-2023, excluding retail clinics inside stores and primary care practices with extended hours (UCA). The paper credits the database of National Urgent Care Realty, a commercial real estate firm that works with urgent care operators. HCCI’s 2026 brief repeats UCA’s estimate of 14,075 centers in 2022 (HCCI). UCA’s data page, read November 10, 2026, shows 15,101 centers (UCA), now sourced through its affiliate Site Data Services.

The older counts were smaller and stricter. In a January 2016 capture of its Industry FAQs, UCAOA said there were more than 6,900 urgent care centers, each verified by hand as offering x-ray, lab and extended hours, and noted there is no national database because federal registration is not required (UCAOA, archived). The same page said another cited figure, 9,000 centers, most likely included retail clinics (UCAOA, archived). Later captures said nearly 7,400 in May 2017 (UCAOA, archived) and 7,500 or more in May 2018 (UCAOA, archived). The 2023 white paper’s yearly series restates 2016 as 8,676 centers (UCA) and 2019 as 11,481 (UCA), and UCA’s current page puts the 2016 starting point of its growth chart at 9,000 (UCA). So the association’s own 2016 number is 6,900, 8,676 or 9,000, depending on which of its pages you read.

Use instead: “The Urgent Care Association, the operators’ trade association, counted 14,382 urgent care centers in mid-2023 from a real estate firm’s database, not counting retail clinics.” Say whose count it is and the month; do not compare it with counts made by another method. Government counts sit in industry codes shared with surgery centers and freestanding emergency departments, covered elsewhere on this page.

“Up to 27% of ER visits could be treated at urgent care”

The figure is a 2010 estimate of what could be shifted, not a count of what patients did, and its own authors’ headline was lower. Weinick, Burns and Mehrotra of RAND (Health Affairs, 2010) estimated that 13.7-27.1 percent of all emergency department visits could take place at urgent care centers or retail clinics (Health Affairs abstract, RAND). They applied an algorithm that sorts ED diagnoses into non-emergent or primary-care-treatable groups to 2006 national ED survey data (NHAMCS), and to the conditions seen in retail clinic visits up to 2008 and a sample of urgent care visits from 2007. The urgent care sample came from centers using one electronic record system, its collection was supported by the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, and the authors said it does not represent all centers.

The range has two parts. RAND’s release says 13.7 percent of the 2006 ED visits studied could have been treated at a retail clinic (RAND) and an additional 13.4 percent at an urgent care center (RAND); together they make the top of the range, but only 16.8 percent could have been managed during the hours those sites are typically open (RAND). RAND’s own headline was about 17 percent (RAND). The top of the range also assumes that half of ED visits for strains, fractures, contusions and lacerations could go to urgent care. In October 2012 JUCM’s editor repeated the study as finding 27% of ED visits could be handled at urgent care centers or retail clinics, without the range or the hours limit (JUCM).

Use instead: “A 2010 RAND study estimated that about 16.8 percent of 2006 ED visits were for conditions that retail clinics or urgent care centers could have treated during their usual hours.” It is an estimate of potential, and it is old.

“Video lifts conversions 80%”

The figure is a best case from one video vendor, EyeView, about a client website, not health care. In February 2009 EyeView’s blog said viewers of its videos for one client, UMOO, were 80% more likely to become depositing users, comparing viewers with non-viewers (EyeView, archived), which does not test what adding a video does. By August 2010 Unbounce, a landing-page software seller, wrote that a study by eyeviewdigital.com showed video on landing pages can increase conversion by 80% (Unbounce, archived). Healthcare marketing carried it on with other names attached: a March 2018 Practice Builders guide for healthcare practices credits Hyperfine Media, a video agency, for landing-page video lifting conversion rates by 80 percent (Practice Builders), and a July 2026 Web Tonic page for health and wellness brands says video on healthcare landing pages lifts conversions by up to 80%, crediting WifiTalents, a statistics aggregator (Web Tonic). Both firms sell marketing.

The larger later evidence points the other way. Unbounce’s own 2021 analysis of about 35,000 customer landing pages in each of three periods (Unbounce) concluded that video appears to have a minimal or negative impact on landing-page performance (Unbounce). Its April 2025 article of landing-page examples still says landing pages with video can increase conversions by 80% (Unbounce). We found no conversion test by an urgent care center. Use instead: “Unbounce’s 2021 study of about 35,000 landing pages per period found video had a minimal or negative effect; we found no conversion test by an urgent care center.”

Every popular claim our research pages trace, 897 in all, is on one page: popular video statistics, fact-checked.

How we built this page

We started from the questions people search for about urgent care video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 502 figures from 50 publishers.

On November 10, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages files and occupation estimates (through the BLS data API and open data files); Census County Business Patterns, Nonemployer Statistics, the 2022 Economic Census and the Annual Integrated Economic Survey (through the Census data API) and Census population files; NCHS National Health Interview Survey tables (through data.cdc.gov’s API) and emergency department survey reports (through Internet Archive copies, because cdc.gov refuses automated requests); Medicare files through data.cms.gov, within its stated crawl delay; the Urgent Care Association’s, Experity’s, RAND’s, UnitedHealth Group’s, UnitedHealthcare’s and the Health Care Cost Institute’s own pages; the Florida Statutes, Laws of Florida, eCFR, GovInfo, the Federal Register and cms.gov; YouTube Help pages; SEC filings on EDGAR; and journal abstracts (PubMed records re-read through NCBI’s E-utilities, because the pages answer scripts with a bot check). Our YouTube figures come from the YouTube Data API, our NPI counts from the NPPES NPI Registry API, our Medicare place-of-service shares from CMS’s 2024 Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary file, and our filing counts from EDGAR full-text search. We left out sources whose robots rules bar AI agents, among them Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration and Health Affairs’ own site (its papers appear through PubMed abstracts), and sources whose terms bar automated collection: Solv and FAIR Health. Medical subject matter is reported as each source states it. Nothing here is medical advice, and nothing here says where anyone should go for care.

We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.

Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:

This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.

Limitations

• No single count of urgent care centers exists. The Urgent Care Association counts centers in its affiliate’s database with no published definition; the NPI registry counts billing identifiers (a center can hold several, and an organization can list the urgent care taxonomy without running a walk-in center); Census and BLS count establishments in NAICS 621493, a code urgent care centers share with ambulatory surgery centers and freestanding emergency departments, and some urgent care centers file under offices of physicians instead. We print the counts side by side rather than choose one.
• Medicare is one slice. Original Medicare covers mostly people 65 and older and people with disabilities. The Physician and Other Practitioners files split place of service only into office and facility, so they cannot separate urgent care; the emergency department amounts are the clinician’s fee only, without the hospital’s facility fee. The claims summary file that does carry place of service 20 hides small cells, so our sums from it are lower bounds, and its averages rest on the lines with every count published.
• Survey questions changed. Before 2024 the National Health Interview Survey asked about urgent care centers and retail clinics in one question; from 2024 it asks separately. The two series cannot be compared or added.
• The industry’s own figures are interested. The Urgent Care Association sells memberships, accreditation and benchmarking; Experity sells software to urgent care centers; UnitedHealthcare is an insurer that steers members away from emergency rooms. Their figures are their own, and the association’s patients-a-year and drive-time claims carry no method on the page.
• Studies differ in design and payer. Cost and utilization studies use one insurer’s claims, Medicare or one health system, in different years, and several find that new urgent care visits add spending rather than replace emergency visits. We report what each study measured and promise nothing about any center, clinician, treatment or video.
• Our YouTube read follows YouTube’s ranking. The 494 videos are what YouTube’s search returned for three terms (the top 200 results of each, sorted by views, with no country filter) on November 10, 2026. It is not a census of urgent care video. View counts are lifetime snapshots, and we sorted 340 channels by hand from their public text; licences were not checked. Patients’ and families’ visit stories, non-licensed staff vlogs and children are published only as a class and counts, so some views cannot be recomputed from the public CSV. No video was watched.
• Filings count words. EDGAR full-text search finds a phrase, not a topic: in most filings that say “urgent care”, urgent care is a customer, competitor or covered benefit. We read by hand only the 2025 filings that also mention video.
• Rules are dated. Statutes and rules are reported as we read them on November 10, 2026. This is not legal advice. Every “earliest we found” in the origins section rests on web pages, PubMed, EDGAR and the Internet Archive; newspaper databases were not searched.

How to cite this page

For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/urgent-care-video-statistics#DRV-024. To cite the page as a whole:

Mark Studios. "Urgent Care Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 10, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/urgent-care-video-statistics

@misc{markstudios_urgent_care_video_statistics_2026,
  author = {{Mark Studios}},
  title = {{Urgent Care Video Statistics}},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/urgent-care-video-statistics},
  note = {Last verified 2026-11-10}
}

Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.

Sources

Download the evidence table (CSV)

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2. Annals of Internal Medicine (Mehrotra et al.; RAND Health), Comparing costs and quality of care at retail clinics with that of other medical settings for 3 common illnesses. (2009-09-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
3. JAMA Internal Medicine (Poon, Schuur, Mehrotra; Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School), Trends in Visits to Acute Care Venues for Treatment of Low-Acuity Conditions in the United States From 2008 to 2015. (2018-10-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
4. Journal of Health Economics (Currie, Karpova, Zeltzer; Princeton University), Do urgent care centers reduce Medicare spending? (2023-05). Accessed 2026-11-10.
5. Health Affairs (Ashwood et al.; RAND and Harvard Medical School), Retail Clinic Visits For Low-Acuity Conditions Increase Utilization And Spending. (2016-03). Accessed 2026-11-10.
6. Health Services Research (Allen, Cummings, Hockenberry), The impact of urgent care centers on nonemergent emergency department visits. (2021-08). Accessed 2026-11-10.
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8. Annals of Emergency Medicine (Martsolf et al.; RAND, AHRQ HCUP and Harvard Medical School), Association Between the Opening of Retail Clinics and Low-Acuity Emergency Department Visits. (2017-04). Accessed 2026-11-10.
9. American Journal of Medicine (Corwin, Parker, Brown; Dartmouth), Site of Treatment for Non-Urgent Conditions by Medicare Beneficiaries: Is There a Role for Urgent Care Centers? (2016-09). Accessed 2026-11-10.
10. JAMA Network Open (Mantilla et al.; L. G. Burke senior author), Trends in Urgent Care Utilization Among Medicare Beneficiaries From 2012 to 2019. (2026-01-02). Accessed 2026-11-10.
11. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (Abara et al.; University of Texas Medical Branch), Effect of Retail Clinic Use on Continuity of Care Among Medicare Beneficiaries. (2019-07). Accessed 2026-11-10.
12. Health Affairs (Mehrotra, Lave), Visits to retail clinics grew fourfold from 2007 to 2009, although their share of overall outpatient visits remains low. (2012-09). Accessed 2026-11-10.
13. Annals of Emergency Medicine (Henein, Denham), Urgent Care and Emergency Department Visitors: A Latent Class Analysis. (2026-03-23). Accessed 2026-11-10.
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18. Open Forum Infectious Diseases (Bizune et al.; CDC), Regional Variation in Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing for Acute Respiratory Tract Infections in a Commercially Insured Population, United States, 2017. (2023-02-08). Accessed 2026-11-10.
19. American Journal of Managed Care (Mehrotra et al.; Harvard Medical School), Antibiotic prescribing for respiratory infections at retail clinics, physician practices, and emergency departments. (2015-04). Accessed 2026-11-10.
20. Pediatrics (Ray et al.; University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School), Antibiotic Prescribing During Pediatric Direct-to-Consumer Telemedicine Visits. (2019-05). Accessed 2026-11-10.
21. Health Affairs (Ashwood et al.; RAND, Harvard Medical School, CalPERS), Direct-To-Consumer Telehealth May Increase Access To Care But Does Not Decrease Spending. (2017-03-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
22. Health Affairs (Shi et al.; Harvard Medical School), Quality Of Care For Acute Respiratory Infections During Direct-To-Consumer Telemedicine Visits For Adults. (2018-12). Accessed 2026-11-10.
23. Health Affairs (Li et al.; University of Michigan), Direct-To-Consumer Telemedicine Visits For Acute Respiratory Infections Linked To More Downstream Visits. (2021-04). Accessed 2026-11-10.
24. JAMA Network Open (Wittman et al.; University of Pittsburgh), Antibiotic Receipt for Pediatric Telemedicine Visits With Primary Care vs Direct-to-Consumer Vendors. (2024-03-04). Accessed 2026-11-10.
25. npj Digital Medicine (Nguyen et al.; Southern California Permanente Medical Group), Virtual urgent care in an integrated value based healthcare system. (2025-04-14). Accessed 2026-11-10.
26. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
27. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
28. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
29. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
30. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
31. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
32. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
33. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
34. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
35. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
36. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, Urgent Care Center and Retail Health Clinic Utilization Among Adults: United States, 2019 (NCHS Data Brief No. 409, Black and Adjaye-Gbewonyo) (2021-06-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
37. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
38. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
39. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
40. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
41. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Adult Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset 25m4-6qqq) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
42. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Child Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset wxz7-ekz9) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
43. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Child Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset wxz7-ekz9) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
44. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, NHIS Child Summary Health Statistics (data.cdc.gov dataset wxz7-ekz9) (2026-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
45. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, FastStats: Emergency Department Visits (2026-10-30). Accessed 2026-11-10.
46. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2019 Emergency Department Summary Tables (2021-01-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
47. National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2022 Emergency Department Summary Tables (2024-09-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
48. Urgent Care Association (trade association), Urgent Care Data (2026-11-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
49. Urgent Care Association (trade association), Center Counts: October by State / October Hospital / October Independent (data feed of the Center Counts page) (2026-10-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
50. Urgent Care Association (trade association), Center Counts: October by State / October Hospital / October Independent (data feed of the Center Counts page) (2026-10-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
51. Urgent Care Association (trade association), Center Counts: October by State / October Hospital / October Independent (data feed of the Center Counts page) (2026-10-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
52. Experity (urgent care software seller), Urgent Care Industry Visit & Diagnosis Trends: Q3 Comparisons (2021-06-23). Accessed 2026-11-10.
53. Experity (urgent care software seller), Urgent Care Quarterly: Urgent Care Visit Volume Trends (2021-09-23). Accessed 2026-11-10.
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55. RAND Corporation (RAND Health), The Evolving Role of Retail Clinics (Research Brief RB-9491-2) (2016-11-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
56. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners - by Geography and Service (2024 data) (2026-05-21). Accessed 2026-11-10.
57. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare Physician & Other Practitioners - by Geography and Service (2019 data) (2025-03-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
58. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary (2024 data) (2026-01-09). Accessed 2026-11-10.
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71. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates (2026-05-15). Accessed 2026-11-10.
72. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates (2026-05-15). Accessed 2026-11-10.
73. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates (2026-05-15). Accessed 2026-11-10.
74. U.S. Census Bureau (Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget), North American Industry Classification System, United States, 2022 (2022). Accessed 2026-11-10.
75. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (Census Data API, cbp) (undated). Accessed 2026-11-10.
76. U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Census: Summary Statistics for the U.S., States, and Selected Geographies: 2022 (ecnbasic) (undated). Accessed 2026-11-10.
77. U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024 (Census Data API, nonemp) (undated). Accessed 2026-11-10.
78. U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2023 (Census Data API, nonemp) (2025-06-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
79. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW open data, 2014 annual averages, industry 621493 (undated). Accessed 2026-11-10.
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83. U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 county population estimates (CO-EST2025-ALLDATA) (2026-03-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
84. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 1998 (Census Data API, cbp) (undated). Accessed 2026-11-10.
85. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2008 (Census Data API, cbp) (undated). Accessed 2026-11-10.
86. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2018 (Census Data API, cbp) (undated). Accessed 2026-11-10.
87. U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Census: Industry by Products Statistics for the U.S.: 2022 (ecnnapcsind) (undated). Accessed 2026-11-10.
88. U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Census: Health Care and Social Assistance: Sales, Value of Shipments, or Revenue from Telemedicine Services: 2022 (ecntelemeds) (2025-01-23). Accessed 2026-11-10.
89. U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Integrated Economic Survey: Detailed Operating Expenses: 2024 (aiesexp02) (2026-05-28). Accessed 2026-11-10.
90. Ardent Health, Inc., Ardent Health, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-03-16). Accessed 2026-11-10.
91. HCA Healthcare, Inc., HCA Healthcare, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-02-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
92. Ardent Health Partners, Inc., Ardent Health Partners, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024 (2025-02-27). Accessed 2026-11-10.
93. Tenet Healthcare Corporation, Tenet Healthcare Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-02-17). Accessed 2026-11-10.
94. Community Health Systems, Inc., Community Health Systems, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-02-19). Accessed 2026-11-10.
95. American CareSource Holdings, Inc., American CareSource Holdings, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2015 (2016-03-30). Accessed 2026-11-10.
96. Concentra Group Holdings Parent, Inc., Concentra Group Holdings Parent, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-02-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
97. Concentra Group Holdings Parent, Inc., Concentra Group Holdings Parent, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024 (2025-03-03). Accessed 2026-11-10.
98. CVS Health Corporation, CVS Health Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-02-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
99. CVS Health Corporation, CVS Health Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2020 (2021-02-16). Accessed 2026-11-10.
100. CVS Health Corporation, CVS Health Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2023 (2024-02-07). Accessed 2026-11-10.
101. CVS Health Corporation, CVS Health Corporation Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024 (2025-02-12). Accessed 2026-11-10.
102. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024 (ended August 31, 2024) (2024-10-15). Accessed 2026-11-10.
103. Walmart Inc., Walmart Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024 (ended January 31, 2024) (2024-03-15). Accessed 2026-11-10.
104. Walmart Inc., Walmart Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (ended January 31, 2025) (2025-03-14). Accessed 2026-11-10.
105. Amazon.com, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-02-06). Accessed 2026-11-10.
106. Teladoc Health, Inc., Teladoc Health, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-02-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
107. LifeMD, Inc., LifeMD, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-03-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
108. Hims & Hers Health, Inc., Hims & Hers Health, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (2026-02-23). Accessed 2026-11-10.
109. LifeMD, Inc., LifeMD, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024 (2025-03-11). Accessed 2026-11-10.
110. The Florida Legislature, The 2026 Florida Statutes, 395.107 Facilities; publishing and posting schedule of charges; penalties (2026). Accessed 2026-11-10.
111. The Florida Legislature, The 2026 Florida Statutes, 400.9935 Clinic responsibilities (2026). Accessed 2026-11-10.
112. Florida Department of State (Laws of Florida), Chapter 2011-122, Laws of Florida (CS/CS/HB 935) (2011-06-02). Accessed 2026-11-10.
113. Florida Department of State (Laws of Florida), Chapter 2012-160, Laws of Florida (CS/CS/HB 787) (2012-04-27). Accessed 2026-11-10.
114. The Florida Legislature, The 2026 Florida Statutes, 395.002 Definitions (2026). Accessed 2026-11-10.
115. Florida Department of State (Laws of Florida), Chapter 2021-112, Laws of Florida (CS/HB 1157) (2021-06-16). Accessed 2026-11-10.
116. The Florida Legislature, The 2026 Florida Statutes, 395.1041 Access to and ensurance of emergency services; transfers; patient rights; diversion programs; reports of controlled substance overdoses (2026). Accessed 2026-11-10.
117. The Florida Legislature, The 2026 Florida Statutes, 627.64194 Coverage requirements for services provided by nonparticipating providers; payment collection limitations (2026). Accessed 2026-11-10.
118. The Florida Legislature, The 2026 Florida Statutes, 627.6405 Decreasing inappropriate utilization of emergency care (2026). Accessed 2026-11-10.
119. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (rule text via eCFR), 45 CFR 149.610 - Requirements for provision of good faith estimates of expected charges for uninsured (or self-pay) individuals (2026-11-06). Accessed 2026-11-10.
120. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (rule text via eCFR), 45 CFR 149.620 - Requirements for the patient-provider dispute resolution process (2026-11-06). Accessed 2026-11-10.
121. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (rule text via eCFR), 45 CFR 149.30 - Definitions (2026-11-06). Accessed 2026-11-10.
122. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (rule text via eCFR), 42 CFR 489.24 - Special responsibilities of Medicare hospitals in emergency cases (2026-11-06). Accessed 2026-11-10.
123. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Place of Service Code Set (2026-02-17). Accessed 2026-11-10.
124. U.S. Government Publishing Office (Public Law 119-75, Congress), Public Law 119-75, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (2026-02-03). Accessed 2026-11-10.
125. The Florida Legislature, The 2026 Florida Statutes, 456.47 Use of telehealth to provide services (2026). Accessed 2026-11-10.
126. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, 45 CFR 164.508 - Uses and disclosures for which an authorization is required (eCFR) (2026-11-05). Accessed 2026-11-10.
127. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (rule text via eCFR), 45 CFR 164.514 - Other requirements relating to uses and disclosures of protected health information (2026-11-05). Accessed 2026-11-10.
128. Federal Trade Commission (Federal Register), Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (88 FR 48092) (2023-07-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
129. Federal Trade Commission (rule text via eCFR, Office of the Federal Register), 16 CFR Part 255 -- Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (2023-07-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
130. YouTube (Google), Medical misinformation policy - YouTube Help (2026-11-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
131. YouTube (Google), Get health information on YouTube - YouTube Help (undated (live help page)). Accessed 2026-11-10.
132. YouTube (Google), Apply to be a source in YouTube health features - YouTube Help (2026-11-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
133. UnitedHealth Group (insurer; analysis of its own UnitedHealthcare claims), 18 Million Avoidable Hospital Emergency Department Visits Add $32 Billion in Costs to the Health Care System Each Year (2019-07). Accessed 2026-11-10.
134. JUCM, The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine (Lee A. Resnick, MD; urgent care trade journal), Crisis in the ER: Quantifying the Impact of Urgent Care (Letter from the Editor-in-Chief) (2009-01). Accessed 2026-11-10.
135. JUCM, The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine (Lee A. Resnick, MD; urgent care trade journal), Show Me the Money: Alternative Access in Acute Care Delivery (Letter from the Editor-in-Chief) (2012-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
136. UnitedHealthcare (insurer), Urgent care vs. emergency room (UnitedHealthcare member resources) (Not stated (capture 2021-06-09)). Accessed 2026-11-10.
137. UnitedHealthcare (insurer), Compare the cost of medical care options (undated live page). Accessed 2026-11-10.
138. Health Care Cost Institute (nonprofit; sells custom data analysis), Urgent Care Spending Increased by 50% over 5 years driven by Higher Use (2026-01-28). Accessed 2026-11-10.
139. Fast Track Urgent Care (urgent care operator; repeater), Urgent Care vs. Emergency Room: The Real Cost Difference in 2026 (2026-02-28). Accessed 2026-11-10.
140. California Insider (Epoch Media Group; repeater), Emergency Room, Urgent Care, or Wait? Tips on How to Decide (2025-11-29). Accessed 2026-11-10.
141. Urgent Care Association (operators' trade association, sells memberships, accreditation and benchmarking reports), 2023 Urgent Care Industry White Paper (2023-08-21). Accessed 2026-11-10.
142. Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA; operators' trade association, sells memberships, accreditation and benchmarking reports), Industry FAQs (UCAOA) (Not stated (capture 2016-01-16)). Accessed 2026-11-10.
143. Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA; operators' trade association, sells memberships, accreditation and benchmarking reports), Industry FAQs (UCAOA) (Not stated (capture 2017-05-24)). Accessed 2026-11-10.
144. Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA; operators' trade association, sells memberships, accreditation and benchmarking reports), Industry FAQs (UCAOA) (Not stated (capture 2018-05-02)). Accessed 2026-11-10.
145. Health Affairs (Weinick et al., RAND); abstract on RAND's publication page, Many emergency department visits could be managed at urgent care centers and retail clinics (2010-09). Accessed 2026-11-10.
146. RAND Corporation (nonprofit research organization; the authors' employer), Some Hospital Emergency Department Visits Could Be Handled by Alternative Care Settings (2010-09-07). Accessed 2026-11-10.
147. EyeView Digital (video production and testing vendor; sold the videos it tested), UMOO - a prime beef example of EyeView's success (2009-02-10). Accessed 2026-11-10.
148. Unbounce (landing-page software seller), The benefits of using video on landing pages (2010-08). Accessed 2026-11-10.
149. Practice Builders (healthcare practice marketing firm; repeater), 5 Video Marketing Ideas for Your Healthcare Practice (2018-03-03). Accessed 2026-11-10.
150. Web Tonic (marketing agency that sells video and ads; repeater), 42+ Statistics Shaping Video Marketing in the Health & Wellness Industry (2026) (2026-07-23). Accessed 2026-11-10.
151. Unbounce (landing-page software seller; analysis of its own customers' pages), Video on landing pages means more conversions, right? Wrong. Here's why (2021-08-26). Accessed 2026-11-10.
152. Unbounce (landing-page software seller; repeater), 15 high-converting landing page examples (+ why they work) (2025-04-06). Accessed 2026-11-10.

Update policy and change log

We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.

• Nov 10, 2026: First published with 502 figures from 50 publishers, each checked against its original source.