Illinois bill says stores can't have both clinics and tobacco

The latest proposal also includes a ban on the sale of alcohol in host stores.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. March 10, 2008.

The Illinois State Medical Society is pushing a revised bill that would set tougher rules for in-store clinics.

The big difference: Outlets hosting health clinics would be prohibited from selling alcohol or tobacco products, which would prevent many grocery stores, pharmacies or big-box retailers from adding clinics.

ISMS President Rodney Osborn, MD, a Peoria anesthesiologist, said it is incongruent to deliver care in the same location that sells unhealthful products. He said retailers need to decide whether it's worth more to have the clinics, or the tobacco and alcohol sales.

Otherwise, the bill, introduced in the Illinois House on Feb. 14, contains many of the same provisions as a bill that passed a third reading in the Illinois House but didn't make it to the Senate before the end of 2007.

The revised bill would require that physicians be medical directors of no more than two clinic locations; prohibit insurers from reducing co-pays or offering other financial incentives to steer patients to retail clinics; establish scope of practice for nurse practitioners and physician assistants at the clinics; and require clinics to report visits and outcomes to a patient's primary care physician.

Also, clinics would be required to give patients a written notice "stressing the importance of having a personal physician who can provide the full range of health care services."

"Our intent is not to ban retail health clinics," Dr. Osborn said in a statement. "Yet we're concerned that since these clinics deliver only episodic or single-instance care, we must work to ensure patients receive needed follow-up care -- an important medical consideration routinely handled by primary care doctors but not retail clinics."