ER trys to redirect non-emergency care

[BackfromRetirement]

Folks using the ER as a primary care provider are being redirected.

New Fee For Non-Emergency ER Visits - WCYB

[Lauren4268]

from what I understand of the law, ED's are only required to triage people for emergencies, and provide care for life threateing emergencies...if someone walks in with a sore throat, they can triage them and send them on their way to a primary care/urgent care and not be legally in trouble...in califorornia their is a $5 copay for non-emergency care for medi-cal (medicad) coverage and people freak out when you ask for the $5,as if the free insurance isn't enough....not too mention the fact the never go to primary care and use ambulances for fevers, no wonder our state is broke

[happy2learn]

from what I understand of the law, ED's are only required to triage people for emergencies, and provide care for life threateing emergencies...if someone walks in with a sore throat, they can triage them and send them on their way to a primary care/urgent care and not be legally in trouble...in califorornia their is a $5 copay for non-emergency care for medi-cal (medicad) coverage and people freak out when you ask for the $5,as if the free insurance isn't enough....not too mention the fact the never go to primary care and use ambulances for fevers, no wonder our state is broke

Yes you are correct on this. But there are things people can say to make someone assume it is an emergency.

There are plenty of homeless people that come into the ED claiming they need care, when in all reality, they just want to escape the heat or cold. It's sad, but true.

[fungez]

This has been tried before in my area. It doesn't work. The redirect clinics are huge money losers, which end up getting shut down after about a year or so. The uninsured who are diverted to it don't pay and usually know the system well enough to give false info so they can't be billed.

Ha! I had a patient, who eloped with his pca still attached, give his address as 123 Durg St. Needless to say, this did not exist.

[lrobinson5]

I've mixed feelings on this. Sure there are people that come in with a tickle in their throat, but I disagree with allowing an insurance company (or Medicaid) decide what they won't cover because it wasn't an 'emergency'. They have a financial incentive to deny treatment.

I was on Medi-Cal when I had my daughter in January. There was a complication with my epidural; CSF leaked and the same day I had a blood patch.

A couple of days later the crippling headaches came back (I couldn't even sit upright to hold my baby) so I went in to the ER.

I got a letter in the mail a month later that I was liable for the $2,000+ that it cost for the IV and Anesthesiologist to come down to the ER. When I tried to appeal their decision they said I should have made an appointment with the original Anesthesiologist. I tried to explain to them that THE SAME Dr. was the one that came down to the ER.

I had the exact same procedure, performed at the same facility, and by the correct doctor, but because they deemed it 'non-emergent' they passed the bill on to me.

Still haven't paid it off completely, but it really sucks to have to worry about medical bills when you are trying to raise a young child.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

I'm so fed up w/ the way we provide ED care. You don't get something for nothing. Deadbeat malingerers are ruining it for everyone. Pretty soon the only emergency care left is going to be at university med centers, etc leaving everone who isnr near one SOL.

I'm am very much in favor of socialized healthcare. A real single payor system, none of this namby pamby compromise we ended up with. If we as a county opt not to demand it, then it should just be a true market system, people get only what they can pay for -up front. I personally think that's totally unethical, but we can't have it both ways anymore. We as a country are going to have to start living, or dying as the case may be, with the consequences of our disastorous choices.