Below are five things to know about freestanding emergency centers and urgent care clinics.
1. Some nonprofit systems, like Phoenix-based Banner Health and Boulder-based University of Colorado Health, use freestanding emergency room to extend their geographical reach to serve patients that live far away from their main campus.
2. Other freestanding ERs like Lewisville, Texas-based First Choice are backed by private investors and aim to help ease the demand on overburdened hospital emergency centers.
3. Billing rates for freestanding emergency rooms are much higher than rates for urgent care clinics. For instance, a report from the Urgent Care Association of American shows a visit to an urgent care center typically costs less than $135, while freestanding ERs charge at least $500 per patient.
4. Many patients do not know they have mistakenly visited a freestanding ER until they receive a bill with much higher service charges. To a large degree, confusion stems from a lack of consumer familiarity with the terms emergency and urgent. In some cases, freestanding ERs and urgent care clinics can even share the same building.
5. A committee of the Colorado House is considering ways to educate patients on the differences between the two freestanding care centers. One way is to require check-in staff at freestanding ERs to give patients printed warnings that prices might be higher and treatment might not be covered by an insurance plan before patient in-take.
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