Should You Visit an Urgent Care Clinic or Emergency Room?

Broken leg, splitting headache, sick child. These are all conditions that warrant a trip to the doctor's office. However, sometimes your doctor isn't available, or the clinic is closed. In these situations many people turn to more emergent locations for treatment. The two main types of facilities for emergency care are Urgent care clinics and emergency rooms. Although both of these locations will give you immediate care, different situations call for one facility over the other. There are various reasons why people should use an Urgent care clinic over an emergency room and visa versa.

Insurance coverage should be one of your first considerations when choosing to go to an emergency room or urgent care clinic. Emergency room visits are usually covered differently than an Urgent care clinic visit. For example, you may have a $10 office visit co-pay at an urgent care clinic, but at the emergency room you could have a $50 co pay. Generally hospital bills are much higher than an urgent care clinic. This is why your insurance company urges you to use the urgent care. Usually a hospital will charge you a facility fee just for visiting the emergency room and then the doctor will have a separate bill. This can get costly for your insurance company, which ends up costing you more in premiums later.

Urgent care clinics are typically covered like a free standing office/facility. This means they would be covered on your insurance just like a regular medical office visit. Insurance companies love it when you visit urgent care clinics because it costs them less in the long run. At a clinic, the insurance company is only sent one bill: the doctor's fee. They urge you to use these clinics by making the coverage much more desirable than an emergency room.

Insurance coverage should absolutely not be the only consideration when there is a medical emergency. There are obvious situations that warrant a hospital visit. If you suspect a heart attack or something that needs immediate treatment to save your life, definitely visit the emergency room. Hospitals are better equipped to handle major injuries and deadly conditions.

If you feel your condition is urgent enough that you call an ambulance, you need emergency room care. One major reason is that ambulances travel only to hospitals. They will not take you to an urgent care clinic. If you are serious enough to call an ambulance, you are serious enough to visit a hospital.

The decision to use an urgent care clinic or an emergency room all comes down to your best judgment. Use your gut to tell you whether or not you should be going to the hospital. You should always combine considerations of insurance coverage and health condition when making your decision to use an emergency room or urgent care clinic.