urgent care/emergency room Hutto (Pflugerville, Center: insurance, cost, population)

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

There is an emergency room 24/7 near the new HEB in Hutto. There is also a recently opened Urgent Care right next to the HEB. Both are private. We have a major insurance carrier and they do not accept it. I always wondered why the emergency place was empty...now I know. What I'm wondering though is who do they accept...people that have cash? And what part of the population walks around with that kind of cash?

FYI: St. David's, Pflugerville accepts insurance. (Stonehill Center)

[riaelise]

Don't go to Any of those freestanding clinics if you don't have to. You'll pay far more whether you have insurance or not.

[df175]

Stand alone ERs are extortion rooms and are never in network as far as I know. Especially the separate doctor charges. They can charge literally whatever they want. Going there for an aspirin will cost you $3,000+ Because of Federal rule change made around 2011, all ER charges must be billed as "in network" to the patient's insurance even though they're always out of network; stand alone ERs refuse to join any insurance networks. This has created an opportunistic, feeding frenzy loophole for cash and why we've seen a mass proliferation of stand alone ERs everywhere in the last several years.

Separately, ER doctors in almost any facility are out of network in order to massively over charge, due to this regulatory change.

(The reason for the change was so that people would go the nearest ER in a true emergency, but there was no supply side regulation to keep providers from exploiting the situation, in most states.)

Urgent care is very different, normally charges reasonably, but check their website.