The number of standalone emergency rooms nationwide has more than doubled in the past four years, a trend that could increase healthcare costs across the board, Kaiser Health News reports.
Free-standing emergency rooms can charge higher rates, even though they typically don’t treat heart attacks or trauma. Most patients should instead use urgent care centers, argues Vivian Ho, a health economist at Rice University in Houston. While the standalone emergency rooms charge insurers double or triple the amount per patient as an urgent care center or a doctor’s office, patients regularly use them for routine care that could be provided in those less-costly settings.
“It’s a great added benefit [for patient convenience], but I think it will lead to overall higher costs for everyone,” Ho says.
The Houston market is the hottest for the standalone ERs, Kaiser Health reports, with 41 already in operation and 10 more under development.
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Date: July 18, 2013