health clinics, pharmacies, hospitals.

Now! In stores near you, clinics are beginning to pop up, offering walk-in health services at a fraction of the cost of visiting emergency rooms or your doctor's office. Approximately 100 such clinics around the country are already in business; parent companies hope to expand to over 2,000 mini-clinics in the next three years.

Wal-Marts, CVS stores, and other chains around the country are hosting these mini-clinics. Offering services like shots, checkups and other routine services, the clinics cater to patients who are under-insured or uninsured, as well as those unwilling to pay for expensive and time-consuming visits to the doctor's office. The mini-clinics offer the additional advantage of providing pharmacies right next door that can fill prescriptions while you shop.

Parent companies can run mini-clinics much more cheaply because the clinics keep costs low. The clinics are housed within existing stores, so overhead costs are minimal. Nurse practitioners with advanced training staff the clinics; these personnel make a fraction of what a doctor would charge. Currently, Rediclinics runs 11 mini-clinics throughout the country, with plans to open 90 stores this year, and 500 more within the next three years. Take Care Health Systems operates 16 clinics, with an eye toward 1400 more stores in three years. Finally, MinuteClinic operates 73 stores around the country.

These companies cater to an apparent consumer trend-a need for convenient and relatively cheap routine medical care--especially in the wake of eroding employer health benefits, and an increasing number of people without any insurance at all.