Freestanding emergency departments are on rise, but some say they don't serve those who need them most
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comEmergency care — but not at a hospital
Seeded on Wed Jun 8, 2011 9:17 AM EDT (msnbc.com)
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A 3 hour wait in an ER compared to less than 10 mins at an emergency center. Hell I'll pay the co-pay.
That is the key reason there is less wait, you have a method to pay for the services.
The ER is loaded with people who are trying to avoid paying for medical service. They either are illegal, or they don't want to wait to see a doctor that will take their medicaid. Then you have the people who decide they would rather live a higher lifestyle than pay for insurance.
Needs to be a way to penalize people who abuse the system, if hospital ER had to only provide free care for real emergencies to those who cannot pay we would not have the issue.
Wish their were more urgent care centers, places you can go for non-life threatening injuries. Sucks if you get a broken bone, or really bad cut/scrape and are forced to wait hours at the ER just because it happened after 5PM or a weekend when the regular doctor's offices are closed.
Even if regular doctors office is open at the time they typically do not want to treat this kind of even. My experience is that even small cuts that require 3 or 4 stitches are referred to the emergency room....It makes no sense at all.
Urgent care centers open 24/7 would be a HUGE benefit to everyone- hospitals and the people they serve. But I think people forget the whole reason why hospitals cut back on ERs and why more people go to them- the lack of insurance.
At our little hospital we see everything from car accidents to toothaches. People come to the ER thinking they can get treatment for something a family doctor should cover- because they hope they don't have to pay for it. Well in a lot of cases they don't pay- the hospital does.
That's the big reason small stand alone ERs are not taking off- it's the money. States are broke and won't pay, the fed is broke and won't pay, and people either cannot afford to buy health insurance or refuse to. If we tried opening one here it would be closed within a year, because our area has far more benefit-less low paying jobs than jobs that have insurance.
Until we agree on a way to fix the money problems, these emergency care centers will be nothing more than a dream for many parts of the country.
So do the feds or the state not pay the hospitals or urgent care centers for indigent patients? Or is there a problem determining indigent status?
?
 The biggest reason the large organizations are building these freestanding ED's is MONEY. When a patient comes into one of those facilities they are billed at the Hospital rate which is astoundingly higher than if they went to their local walk in clinic or family practice doctor. It has nothing to do with service. The Issaquah facility you mentioned in your article stands empty most of the time. The overhead involved with keeping that running is astronomical. The free standing ED's are doing nothing to control the total cost of care. They are doing exactly the opposite, driving it through the roof.
Welcome to the United Corporations and Churches of America
Where the Real product is the stock and
the True Customer is the stockholder.
In god we trust all others pay foreign loan shark interest.
Now I can add:
By declaration of the the TeaPubs, if you get sick die quickly.
Unfortunately for those of us with insurance, hospital emergency rooms have become primary care facilities for illegal immigrants and those without insurance, not emergency rooms. This ties up the services and the funds needs for actual acute needs.
I think it goes deeper than that though. Hospitals and doctors have to charge exhorbitant fees because of insurance costs, medication costs, and student loan pay off costs. Perhaps we need to start by making medical school affordable for the average American college student with the desire before we hand out scholarships to students from India. Considering what the insurance companies are making in profits off of us, malpractice insurance premiums could definitely be lowered. I believe most of us agree that an aspirin is not worth $8 even when it is delivered on a hospital tray...someone is making a ridiculous amount of profit off of the fact that an ill person has no choice.
I think it would be wise before permiting establisments of freestanding ED's to assure there is really a need for it in the first place; for example in PR in order to establish a clinical laboratory, the department of health grants the permission for establishments based on population size and ensures there is no other lab nearby at least within a 3 mile radius. In addition, once granted permission there is a thorough inspection process before operating the laboratory.