Iowa

Today, even a mild cut or injury that leads to a visit to a hospital emergency room can cost thousands of dollars.  Knowing in advance what your options are when contemplating a visit to an emergency room may save you or your family members a lot of money.

Recently, The New York Times’s Lesley Alderman wrote an article entitled “Demystifying, and Maybe Decreasing, the Emergency Room Bill”.  The article provided practical advice on how to manage your ER visit costs.

One of the article’s key recommendations is to use your judgment in deciding on whether to visit an ER at all when faced with an injury.  Certainly, in a serious situation, cost can’t be a factor in considering whether to seek care.  However, according to data from the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality the top three reasons for emergency room visits in 2007 were sprains and strains, superficial injuries and contusions, and upper respiratory infections.  None of these actually require Emergency Room care.  Oftentimes, these injuries may be initially addressed at home, then followed up by a visit to your regular physician.  

The article also pointed out that people should consider alternatives to Emergency Rooms.  There are now 8,700 urgent care centers in the United States. Oftentimes, an urgent care center can offer not only less expensive care than an Emergency Room, but you may be able to be seen faster.  Urgent care centers are NOT a good choice for serious injuries, but are a good option for cuts, sprains or broken toes or fingers.  You can find an urgent care center near you by visiting www.itriagehealth.com.

If you do need to visit an ER, the decision to find one in or out of your health care network just got a lot easier as a result of the new health care reform law.  According to The New York Times article, a patient may not be penalized for receiving out-of-network care in the case of an emergency and patients no longer will be required to seek preapproval of emergency room visits.  Regulations regarding this issue will come out later this month, but, to be on the safe side, if you have a choice, try to stay in your network.

If you do have to visit an ER and are hit with a bill, there are a couple of options you have to bring the costs down.  First, really examine the bill and make sure that there are no  mistakes.  In the rush to address an injury, sometimes procedures are recorded incorrectly.  Call the hospital’s billing department to resolve any mistakes.

You can also question procedures and their costs.  Hospitals are remarkably flexible in negotiating their fees, especially after your insurance has paid for its share of the bill.  They would rather receive a partial payment than go through the hassle or spend a lot of money on collections.  Make them an offer and negotiate a deal that you can afford.  Finally, consider making an installment payment arrangement to cover larger bills over time.