Urgent Care clinics have become quite a necessity in recent times. Society requires the most out of everyone, often leaving little to no time for extended medical visits that inflate our health care plans. Most times we need quick, reliable medical attention for easily treatable ailments, the ability to meet demanding schedules, and maintain the same amount of compassion and professionalism without an inflated cost. On average, individuals tend to suffer from non-life-threatening injuries far more, such as ankle sprains, making urgent care centers the ideal place to go for convenient medical care provided outside of regular office hours that many health insurance companies do not cover.
What Is Urgent Care?
Urgent care is an alternative medical service that focuses on providing ambulatory care outside of a traditional emergency room and allows you to avoid health insurance companies. Urgent care centers are primarily used for non-immediate care to treat injuries and illnesses such as colds flu, sprains, X-Rays, stitches, minor infections and wounds, and bruises that are covered by most health insurance plans. Statistics account for approximately 3 million patients who visit an urgent care for flu, colds, or any related symptoms, as reported by the Urgent Care Association of America. Additionally, urgent care provides personalized care within a health plan with doctors that are accessible throughout nearly eighty-five percent of urgent care centers.
What’s The Difference Between Urgent Care Clinics And Emergency Care?
Urgent care medical services are staffed with various medical practitioners at any given time, from nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants that are covered by various health insurance companies. Urgent care benefits those who have hectic schedules and limited coverage with their health insurance companies. Research showed in 2016, 27% of U.S patients reported they visited an urgent care center in the last two years, and urgent care is also much more cost-effective for people’s health insurance plans, with more than 70% of ER patient’s health insurance companies covering non-emergency or preventable conditions. Overall, urgent care is a specific type of healthcare services that are covered by many health insurance companies.
Emergency services offer more extensive healthcare services than the basics covered by walk-in urgent care. Emergency services are equipped and trained to deal with more severe injuries and illnesses, because of the variety of situation they see on an hourly basis. The type of medical treatment provided at the ER is typically more detailed because their healthcare services are comprised of board-certified physicians that are knowledgeable in all medical situations from severe health problems to difficulty breathing and lacerations. ER healthcare services also provide more immediate treatment to patients and offer advanced diagnostic and laboratory services, unlike urgent care that only covers the basics. The emergency room allows patients to stay for observation overnight and 24/7 access to doctors varying in medical disciplines for any level of a medical issue.
What Does Urgent Care Cost?
Medical expenses are a constant worry for most because of a lack of coverage from their health insurance companies, and the ER is the main reason why. On average, the cost to visit an Emergency Room is approximately $1,233. The CDC reported more than 136 million visits to the ER in 2012 that were entirely avoidable, and more than 75 million people stated they have financial problems from paying off medical debt. Walk-in clinics and urgent care centers aim to lessen the pressures of medical bills by making affordable care for patients while effectively treating many ailments, diminishing the need for a visit to the ER. Urgent care costs vary depending on insurance, but it is considerably less than visiting an emergency room at about an eighty percent decrease.
Why Its Best To Avoid Late-Night ER Visits
In the emergency room, there are certain limitations to the number of people that can be seen at a time. Even if your situation is severe, there is a likelihood that your waiting time will drastically exceed the average waiting time that’s considered safe. A late-night trip is something you want to avoid if possible. Doctors typically only spend 13-16 minutes with a patient—this number drastically decreases during late hours, because the number of patients.
