Posted on 12/03/2016 5:10:37 PM PST by ProudFossil
What is the purpose of all the urgent care centers in the urban areas, specifically Albuquerque, New Mexic?
Urgent care is for when you can’t obtain a same day appointment at your physician, don’t want to go to the ER, but do want to be treated same day. They typically have high charges for mediocre care but if you can’t get an appointment elsewhere...
Personally I would rather go to a hospital’s ER urgent care center since they usually have an associated urgent care clinic with it that at least has the hospital’s standards. Some of the stand alone urgent care clinics leave a lot to be desired.
The waiting time at family practice and especially specialists can be unreal in certain parts of the states. It’s a supply/demand problem plus an insurance issue - there are a lot of people with good insurance who enjoying to the doctor. I try to avoid all doctors as much as possible as does my physician father.
Urgent care is for when you can’t obtain a same day appointment at your physician, don’t want to go to the ER, but do want to be treated same day. They typically have high charges for mediocre care but if you can’t get an appointment elsewhere...
Personally I would rather go to a hospital’s ER urgent care center since they usually have an associated urgent care clinic with it that at least has the hospital’s standards. Some of the stand alone urgent care clinics leave a lot to be desired.
The waiting time at family practice and especially specialists can be unreal in certain parts of the states. It’s a supply/demand problem plus an insurance issue - there are a lot of people with good insurance who enjoying to the doctor. I try to avoid all doctors as much as possible as does my physician father.
I’m in NY...No referral needed. The centers are great. If you need further help...they’ll send you to a hospital AND phone ahead so you don’t have to wait in the emergency room.
It is a private alternative to the ER. I’ve to one near me a couple times in the last year. Once to get some stitches out, and another for a diagnosis of shingles.
My insurance covers one in my area, but not another. So check with your insurance.
The copay for the urgent care place is $30 vs $100 for a trip to the ED.
For medical issues that are not “special” they are fine. Would I go there for an “emergency”, probably not.
I go to urgent Care for cuts, burns, acute illness. I refuse to sit for hours in am ER while foreigners get seen for free before me.
The bit about referral is 100% wrong though. Urgent care clinics are walk in, no referral needed. Sounds like your daughter-in-law has a sleazeball primary care provider that would rather make her wait at their clinic for the doctors to return (and hence so they can bill) than lose her to an urgent care clinic. She should change primary care providers.
THIS! Having UTI problems (or the masquerading yeast) is URGENT - when you feel awful, you feel awful and it has to get solved now or will only get worse!
There is one going up in our area soon and we are “small town” and even have a hospital that I don’t think is that busy not to mention a couple of clinics that have offshoots in the surrounding towns of 1,000 or less. The town with the urgent care going up may have a population of 4500 or less.
What did she end up doing?
.
They are like a hospital ER without the rest of the hospital attached to it.
If you have to go to another portion of the hospital (example surgery) you will be transferred by ambulance to the affiliated hospital.
In her case, one of the little Doc-in-a-box (Care Now) standalone clinics might have been best if she had not passed the time window for suturing.
Just call a nearby urgent care and see what THEY say.
I went to one last spring over a weekend. It was not the one closest to my house and one state over, though still in the same metropolitan area.
No prob.
Many urgent care facilities are often owned by local doctors. The care is generally substandard. They are designed for fast, incomplete workups, and to give the local physicians (primary care) a night of no calls.
Yes. When a UTI rears its ugly head, Urgent Care is my best friend. My orthopedic surgeon said a UTI can get into the bloodstream quickly and compromise my artificial hip. I’m taking no chances and not waiting for an appointment at my doctor’s office.
Have also used Urgent Care for a medium burn at work on New Year’s Eve when my doc’s office was closed. Once my cat bit me — didn’t want to take a pill — so I walked in for treatment and Tetanus shot.
Thank you for the specific response about Albuquerque
I went to your suggested url about the urgent care facilities. They ALL have regular business hours and request that you make an appointment to visit them. THEY ARE NO LONGER URGENT CARE FACILITIES BUT JUST A BRANCH OF PHS IN MY OPINION.
I just called two of the PHS urgent care centers here in Albuquerque. They are closed because it is past their normal business hours. They would be happy to take a payment using their auto pay system however. It is now 6:40 pm here in Albuquerque.
So apparently obamacare has struck in New Mexico.
They are all over NC. I used them once during a workplace injury.
They have x-ray ability and can treat broken bones etc.
Most of their treatments are flu and such.
They can prescribe medications.
They also have the power to have you expedited to ER.
The missing detail is probably "...or her insurance would not pay for the Urgent Care visit".
Urgent Care centers do not require referrals. Their entire business is about taking walk-in patients at any time that they are open.
In my experience, they are sometimes more expensive than a regular clinic (2x), but far less expensive than a visit to an ER (20x)
Having built and operated a number of urgent care centers (in Georgia), none of this makes sense. I checked the regulations for New Mexico and there is no restriction as to who can be treated. Most urgent care centers will avoid treating a child under a year old... unless it is a real emergency, bleeding, etc. that needs to be stabilized. Otherwise, we get them to a hospital based emergency center.
So, for your daughter, if she is over 1 year old, the only issue would be method of payment. A physician office copay is around $25 but urgent care would be $50. Urgent care centers by their nature provide a more comprehensive level of services and command higher fees.
Different carriers may make deals with urgent care centers for a specific fee schedule, thereby making a particular center “in network”. Whatever insurance, if any, your daughter has may have a policy of “steering” their insured to contracted or “in network” providers.
Over a period of 25 years, I've never seen a case where the urgent care center would not treat someone. The patient is advised what the reimbursement situation is and then it is up to them if they want to be treated or go somewhere else that would be less expensive for them.
Send her to Georgia and we'll take care of her. If a center is open, she can walk right in.
The one I used in the past was top notch. I even had a minor surgery for $400 (paid cash) and got my prescription included. In fact, I would go there before the local ER anytime.
Incidentally Albuquerque was officially founded in 1706 in NEW MEXICO and never in Arizona.
Urgent care centers are for profit and generally skim off the easy cases from Hospital Emergency Centers providing you have good insurance.
No insurance or non-paying/delayed payment insurance are referred to Emergency Centers that cannot turn them away. In fact Michael(le) Obama provided this job at an upscale hospital to route the “non-performing” cases to other hospitals which had to take the patients.
A lot has to do with the locale and state regulations as for specifics on their operations although most is related to insurance.
Remember their out is always: “Your injury is so severe that we cannot handle it here and you must go to a hospital emergency room”. We had this happen to a friend (who cut her hand severely) until her husband demanded that they recheck with his insurance company. The clerk had contacted the wrong insurance company and when corrected the wife was taken care of immediately. You will not get to a treatment room within the facility until the insurance is checked and approved!!!!
On the other hand, most good insurance companies will approve urgent care because it is cheaper than emergency room charges especially if the hospital is not an in-network hospital or one is not readily available.
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