Retail Clinics

WOONSOCKET, R.I. With camp season, team practices and summer sports leagues right around the corner, administrators soon will be asking for completed physical exam forms before a child or teen is able to participate, so MinuteClinic is offering exams at a special rate through Sept. 19.

Through Sept. 19, exams will be priced at $35. Additional charges may apply for more thorough exam requirements, such as urinalysis. Insurance is not accepted for physical exams. Requirements for physicals vary by state, and services are not available in Massachusetts.

HOUSTON Retail-based clinic operator RediClinic now is offering nebulizer breathing treatments.

Through the use of a clinically supervised nebulizer treatment, patients can breathe medication directly to the lungs, helping to ease airway inflammation and allowing for easier breathing.

The treatment is designed for those patients experiencing wheezing, coughing and trouble breathing caused by such respiratory conditions as asthma, reactive airway disease and bronchitis.

NEW YORK Computerized systems may be able to detect early eye problems related to diabetes, according to a University of Iowa analysis.

NEW YORK Consumer Health Services, a manager of on-site consumer health clinics, has announced the opening of its new physician-led clinic inside Duane Reade at West 42nd Street and 8th Avenue.

There are now six DR Walk-in Medical Care centers within Duane Reade stores in New York. The clinics are managed by Consumer Health Services.

The medical practice is affiliated with Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center.

WASHINGTON According to prepared testimony immediately posted online before members of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform convened its “Johnson & Johnson Recall of Children’s Tylenol and other Children’s Medicines” hearing Thursday morning, J&J may be under scrutiny for more than the 40 varieties of over-the-counter infant’s and children’s liquid medicines recalled April 30.

LANDOVER, Md. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America on Thursday released its new list of the 100 “Allergy Capitals” (www.AllergyCapitals.com), naming Knoxville, Tenn. as the most challenging place to live with spring allergies this year due to high pollen counts, high use of allergy medications by patients and too few allergists to treat the burgeoning allergy population.

WASHINGTON The expansion of Medicaid under the new health-reform law significantly will increase the number of people covered by the program and will markedly reduce the uninsured in states across the country, with the federal government picking up the overwhelming majority of the cost, according to a state-by-state analysis released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

DENVER The use of at-home blood pressure monitors and Web-based reporting tools that connect clinicians and patients via the Internet appears to significantly improve patients’ ability to manage their high blood pressure to healthy levels, according to research from Kaiser Permanente released Friday.