The Boston Globe reports that some of Massachusetts’s biggest insurers say they will cover much of the price of patients’ visits to clinics soon to open in CVS and Walgreens drugstores in the state. Such facilities are lifeboats to consumers, offering care for routine problems at much lower cost than visits to doctors’ offices or emergency rooms.

The Globe says insurers will ask for $10-$25 co-payments for visits to these clinics, compared to $50-$150 for trips to hospital emergency rooms. Patients without insurance to cover part of the price of visits pay $59 to $69 at CVS’s MinuteClinics and $59 to $74 at Walgreens clinics in other states. Compare that to many hundreds of dollars in emergency rooms.

Great news for Bay Staters! Unfortunately, Rhode Island has yet to allow these facilities. Officials need to get going on this. Meanwhile, we will publish the addresses of such clinics close to Rhode Island as they open.