Why are emergency room visits so expensive?

[BLB_Oregon]

1. People use emergency departments for primary care in addition to truly emergent needs like traumas, heart attacks, and strokes. People literally show up to be seen for runny noses that won’t go away. EDs have to be equipped for everything. This isn’t cheap.
2. Emergency departments can’t just treat your chief complaint and send you home. If you have some other awful thing, even if it is totally unrelated to your pregnancy, they are supposed to catch that, too. This isn’t cheap.
3. OB/GYN patients are taken very seriously in EDs. Emergent and urgent prenatal care can be a tragedy-laden, not to mention a “litigation rich”, environment. If you are seen in an emergency department and later have a baby who was not perfect when you visited the ED and they didn’t catch it, they could get sued and lose. Losing litigation that follows the delivery of an impaired child or the loss of the mother’s ability to have children is extremely expensive… not to mention that missing that kind of thing is extremely tragic. Zero tolerance for mistakes combined with usually all new and often complicated patients is not cheap.
4. The ED is essentially the only health care in the US that is not allowed to do “wallet biopsies.” By the mandate of the US Congress, they have to see you and at least determine that you are not in immediate need of care, whether you can pay or not and whether your insurance agrees to pay or not. The Congress has not agreed to pay for that. Therefore, we all do.

BTW, that ultrasound was probably a bit of a nail-biter. While those trained in primary care are more likely to expect the most likely scenario, emergency department training has its emphasis on expecting and finding the worst… and they don’t see OB/GYN cases all day every day like your own OB/GYN does.

Doctors send their patients to emergency departments for off-hour and weekend care, so they don’t have to come in. As someone else already pointed out, there has to be a better way to handle this than to send them all to the ED.

 

[KathleenElsie]

I was told by me DR to go to the ER last week. I was getting spots, sweats and chills with a great big headache. I work with animals and I guess she was thinking something exotic. Well $100 co-pay later the diog was chickenpox. Oh well at least the DRs in the ER had a good laugh at my expence.

The only good to come from it is I have almost two weeks off of work and the boss can’t fire me .

 

[Benedictus]

KathleenElsie:

Well $100 co-pay later the diog was chickenpox.

It could be worse. With my current insurance, if I go to the ER but am not admitted, I end up paying an arm and two legs.

 

[Fitz]

I think your doctor told you the wrong advice to go to an emergency room for a routine type of test. The way I do those type of tests is to make appointments and then the cost is not so ridiculous. The doctor gave you some poor advice. If he orders more tests, try the appointment thing at a clinic associated with your hospital, and you won’t wait so long or be charged so much.

By the way, congratualtions on your pregnanacy.

For those discussing socilaized medicine, please start a new thread. It is interesting, but let’s discuss it separately.

 

[paramedicgirl]

Lillith:

Hmmmm…don’t really know what to say here. I have never seen these statistics. I always heard Norway or Sweden were rated top. Personally…Australia seems pretty nice to me…but I don’t go for the cold climates…

The information I provided comes from the United Nations Human Development Index. They annualy rate the countries in the world, and since 1980 Canada has been chosen more than any other country (9 times). Norway was chosen as first the last 4 years running, with Canada getting top spot from 1996-2000. Here is the website. Just scroll down about 1/2 down the page. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#Top.2Fbottom_three_countries_by_continent

Lillith:

True. It could happen anywhere…But I like the fact that I can doctor shop…without any restrictions…go all the way across country to the best if I like. As I understand it you do not have that freedom.

Canadians can also “doctor shop”. I live in BC, but I go to the doctor in Banff, Alberta. I have a doctor I particulary like there, and I find her to be worth the drive. I have never been told to go to a doctor in my own town.