{"id":9670,"date":"2019-01-11T19:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T19:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9670"},"modified":"2019-01-11T19:00:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T19:00:33","slug":"aarp-warns-of-sticker-shock-at-freestanding-ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9670","title":{"rendered":"AARP Warns of \u2018Sticker Shock\u2019 at Freestanding ERs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An AARP survey shows that many Texas families confuse freestanding emergency rooms with urgent care centers, and end up paying much higher bills. Photo: Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Confusion by Texas consumers over freestanding emergency rooms has left many families with unexpected and unnecessary high medical bills.<\/p>\n

A new\u00a0AARP survey<\/a>\u00a0of Texas freestanding ERs finds that, unlike urgent care clinics, many of freestanding ER billings are out-of-network for most insurers.<\/p>\n

Patients report sticker shock over surprise medical bills that are several times larger than what they expected from urgent care.<\/p>\n

Blake Hutson, associate state director at AARP Texas, says at first glance it is often not obvious that a facility is an emergency room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with these facilities is they\u2019re located in the same kind of places that we see urgent care \u2013 in strip malls and near grocery stores and really convenient locations,\u201d Hutson relates. \u201cSo, they look a lot like urgent care, but they certainly aren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freestanding ERs are facilities not attached to a hospital or other care facility, which provide services normally available at a traditional hospital-based ER.<\/p>\n

Hutson says AARP found that at freestanding ERs, patients who asked about insurance coverage are often told that their treatment would be covered at \u201cin network\u201d prices.<\/p>\n

However, when the bill arrives, their insurance company has either rejected the claim as out-of-network, or reimbursed it at a much lower rate, leaving the consumer on the hook for the balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers are telling us they got an extra bill for a thousand, a couple thousand dollars,\u201d Hutson relates. \u201cAnd of course, that\u2019s not a bill you should get if you go to urgent care. So, it\u2019s reasonable that consumers and expect that. \u201c<\/p>\n

Hutson adds that he also found many freestanding ERs do not comply with state disclosure laws differentiating their facility from urgent care clinics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a real extreme level of disclosure is needed at these facilities,\u201d Hutson states. \u201cSo, when a person walks in, they have a full understanding of how the facility actually works with insurance and what the bills will be and what the charges will be from that facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health care studies show that freestanding ERs are one of the fastest growing parts of the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0Confusion by Texas consumers over freestanding emergency rooms has left many families with unexpected and unnecessary high medical bills. A new\u00a0AARP survey\u00a0of Texas freestanding ERs finds that, unlike urgent care clinics, many of freestanding ER billings are out-of-network for most insurers. Patients report sticker shock over surprise medical bills that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9673,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9670\/revisions\/9673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}