Three quarters of specialists in Emergency Departments are seeing more patients since January 1, 2014, according to a survey released by the American College of Emergency Physicians:
More people have been put on Mediciad due to Obamacare and we all know Medicaid patients over utilize hospital ERs for non-emergency care, so not much of a surprise. Other low information healthcare patients who are newly insured with Obamacare don’t mind going to ER for urgent care situations because they probably believe their insurance will cover it so it doesn’t matter if they goto PCP, clinic, or ER. Too bad you can’t bet on these things in Vegas, I’d make a killing.
I suspect that a lot of hospitals could open up their own urgent care centers next door to their emergency rooms.
The 60% of ER visitors who are not in a true emergency could be efficiently directed to the urgent care center.
I suspect that doing this would cost the hospitals money, so they do not do it. Even getting scrawny Medicaid reimbursements is more attractive than getting $75 for an urgent care visit.
Hospitals do own urgent care centers. They often appear to keep bankers’ hours. Why? Because it is often more profitable to see them in the emergency department.
Bob that’s actually a good idea. I wonder if there’s a legality that once the ER physician sees the patient he/she can’t refer them out due to Emtala or Liability issues. Otherwise hospitals should do that.
More people have been put on Mediciad due to Obamacare and we all know Medicaid patients over utilize hospital ERs for non-emergency care, so not much of a surprise. Other low information healthcare patients who are newly insured with Obamacare don’t mind going to ER for urgent care situations because they probably believe their insurance will cover it so it doesn’t matter if they goto PCP, clinic, or ER. Too bad you can’t bet on these things in Vegas, I’d make a killing.
I suspect that a lot of hospitals could open up their own urgent care centers next door to their emergency rooms.
The 60% of ER visitors who are not in a true emergency could be efficiently directed to the urgent care center.
I suspect that doing this would cost the hospitals money, so they do not do it. Even getting scrawny Medicaid reimbursements is more attractive than getting $75 for an urgent care visit.
Hospitals do own urgent care centers. They often appear to keep bankers’ hours. Why? Because it is often more profitable to see them in the emergency department.
Bob that’s actually a good idea. I wonder if there’s a legality that once the ER physician sees the patient he/she can’t refer them out due to Emtala or Liability issues. Otherwise hospitals should do that.