Increasing ER visits because of no insurance!

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Wanted to know what you guys thought of the ever increasing Emergency Room visits and how is this going to effect our healthcare in the future.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Moved in to general nursing discussion

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ER is always visited frequently by people with no insurance. Nothing new for us. Out of the 150 patient's we have daily, I say maybe 6 people are considered certified emergency patients.

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While people do visit the ED instead of a PCP due to lack of insurance, that's not the only reason.

I'm always surprised by the general public's lack of knowledge/common sense about what is serious enough to warrant a visit to the ED or what can wait to see their PCP, even for those with insurance.

Plus, lots of people these days need immediate gratification and are too impatient to wait to see their PCP.

As the other poster stated, this is really nothing new so I don't expect it to impact the future of healthcare much.

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Specializes in ER/ICU/STICU.

It will never change and people coming in for non sense will never change. This is essentially free health care. I feel like I'm the sucker because I go to work and pay through the nose for my health insurance. I could just as easily go to the ER for every little thing, give a fake name and address and never worry about a bill. It's not like I would be refused care.

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I do not have health insurance. I do not qualify for Medicaid and despite just transitioning to a full time position as a CNA at a local hospital(read I can finally afford to pay for health insurance), I am not eligible to get it until open enrollment...5 months from now.

I will admit..I have gone to the ER when I felt the need.. not for silly things..but for bronchitis(I've had pneumonia in the past and did not want to go down that road again) or something like it. I work full time, take extra shifts whenever I can...I am a single mom doing it all on my own.

I am so sick of people who complain about this. Who gives a damn how the patient pays? Seriously, you have a job. Shut up, do the job and be grateful you have one and that you have health insurance.

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I do not have health insurance. I do not qualify for Medicaid and despite just transitioning to a full time position as a CNA at a local hospital(read I can finally afford to pay for health insurance), I am not eligible to get it until open enrollment...5 months from now.

I will admit..I have gone to the ER when I felt the need.. not for silly things..but for bronchitis(I've had pneumonia in the past and did not want to go down that road again) or something like it. I work full time, take extra shifts whenever I can...I am a single mom doing it all on my own.

I am so sick of people who complain about this. Who gives a damn how the patient pays? Seriously, you have a job. Shut up, do the job and be grateful you have one and that you have health insurance.

Nobody is complaining about HOW they pay, but we do care IF they pay. Those who don't put the burden square on the shoulders of everyone else, which give us a right to complain as often as we see fit.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
IWho gives a damn how the patient pays?
Hospitals become insolvent when too many patients do not pay. An insolvent hospital will eventually close down, which means lost jobs for the many healthcare workers and ancillary staff that it employed. The things that one patient does (or does not do) will affect society as a whole.

Healthcare facilities are businesses in America. Any business that is not adequately reimbursed for the services that are rendered will inevitably fail.

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Specializes in ED, Neuro, Management, Clinical Educator.

Approximately 10-15% of the 60k we see per year have private insurance. As someone else states above, only a very small number of the patients we see per day have genuine emergencies. Out of 160-180 or so per day, there are maybe 10 true emergencies tops.

This is nothing new to us. We've seen this happening for years. The problem is many people know that the care they will receive in the ED comes with no obligation to pay, and the services will never be withheld. As a result, they come in for every hang nail, and they come in after taking the first dose of an antibiotic saying they "are still sick."

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this is a social problem, not a nursing problem. sometimes people just need to know someone cares. sometimes they have nobody else who does.

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I have always intentionally never bothered to know what my patients insurance type is. I don't know why any floor, staff, bedside nurse would!!!!

As justashooter said it is a social issue, nothing to do with health care needs. And you can find articles, statistics, showing your premise isn't even true! But I do believe there are lies, dammed lies, and statistics!!!

If you want to discuss stupid reason patients visit ER's that can be an interesting, even humorous topic, but already covered in other threads.

I will admit I am an atheist, but still ask myself and you, what would Jesus do?

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
Hospitals become insolvent when too many patients do not pay. An insolvent hospital will eventually close down...

Healthcare facilities are businesses in America. Any business that is not adequately reimbursed for the services that are rendered will inevitably fail.

Hospital I work at has 34% of our ER patients that do not pay. What other business can absorb that kind of loss and function?

I applaud many of the programs that allow for "a medical screening exam". EMTALA compliant the patients receive a screening exam and if there is no medical emergency they have the option of paying a modest copay or seeing a clinic or PCP (as if they have oneicon_rolleyes.gif). There are exclusions to this policy like infants and geriatrics over a certain age but the bottom line is that it removes a fairly substantial number of people from our census. The program we use has held up in many challenges in court.

Funny, the reason I don't see this taking off is because the doctors want these people. They "eat what they kill". Many hospitals don't staff their own ER's anymore. They leave it to an MD staffing company that specializes in emergency medicine. These doctors absolutely depend on the number of patients seen. They handle their own billing. Now we're back to the same backlog of non-emergent patients...:lol2:

The system is broke... people smarter than me will have to fix it.

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