Its also the 'life saving agreements'. The pop-up ERs can bill and then send to collections for the less expensive emergencies. The brick and mortar hospitals obviously do the same, but when a non-insured (sorry to be blunt, but poor) person comes in the door with a full cardiac arrest, the pop-up will place him in an ambulance and ship him on to the full hospital because of their 'capabilities'. The most expensive write-offs are forwarded to the big hospitals. The smaller write-offs (unpaid losses) are smaller and easier to send to collections with a higher likelyhood of payment.flechero wrote: ↑Mon Oct 08, 2018 9:36 am My guess and it's just a guess- in a true ER you are sharing the costs of a full blown facility up to and including trauma/surgical/burn unit care, etc. So they spread the cost over all that use it.
Urgent care came along for those needing to see a Dr sooner than you can get an appt... Could be anything from a strep/flu test to stitches to anything not immediately life threatening. (lacks a lot of equipment and highly specialized Dr's.) So you aren't paying for the super expensive things you don't need.
Again, this is mostly speculation on my part.
If a credit-buying company has the option to buy a 500$ (or even 3000$) debt from "Non-Insured #1" or a $30,000 debt from "Non-insured #2", which do you think they would rather buy?
As brutal as it may seem, as soon as you require 'life saving' medicine to be performed for free (or no requirement to pay back) without the possibility to garnish tax returns or wages, you have a system ripe for abuse. Its why people who aren't insured go to the ER for the flu. They won't have to pay for it. Its also why the traditional ER has a four hour line, people using it as a clinic in lieu of emergencies only. And they can't turn them away...
Not suggesting any specific solutions, just wanted to point out the finance side of it...
