Another Hospital Billing Trap
by Danielle Ofri
New York Times
Thank goodness for urgent care centers. Last July my daughter was still limping a week after a bike injury, and we needed a quick X-ray to rule out a fracture. As a doctor, I knew we didn’t need an expensive emergency room for something this straightforward. We found an urgent care at the end of a strip mall in Chicago, and 20 minutes later we received the good news that there was only a sprain.
As the three employees closed up shop for the day, I reflected on how urgent-care centers filled a perfect niche between the overkill of an emergency room and the near impossibility of snagging an immediate orthopedic appointment.
But this is health care in America, and nothing ever closes up tidily. Two weeks later a bill arrived…
Read the full op-ed in the New York Times