If you are being taken to an emergency room, then it implies that the injury you have sustained is serious, you have a serious health condition that requires immediate attention, or you might even be unconscious of having a talk with health personnel on the ground if you have health insurance or not.
The good side to all this is that in 1986, Congress passed a bill stating that patients should be attended to when they need to visit the emergency room whether they have a health insurance card or not. The big question is, what happens if you go to the ER without insurance cover?
Emergency rooms were created to save lives, especially in life-threatening situations. Some life-threatening conditions include having trouble breathing, head trauma, suffering a deep cut, having a fatal injury, being unconscious, and suffering a heart attack, continuous bleeding, and so on, many more.
Legally, visiting the emergency room and having no life-threatening case with no medical insurance or means of payment, you are entitled to any treatment. You would be sent to a primary healthcare provider.
The primary healthcare provider or community clinic is the best place to visit, especially if the condition you are suffering is a tolerable one. On the other hand, visiting an emergency room with a life-threatening condition means that the hospital is going to provide you with three things such as appropriate transfers, emergency care, and treatment, and screening.
Every emergency room should provide stabilizing care to every patient brought in, whether the patient has medical insurance or not.
What Happens If You Go To The ER Without Insurance
It would help if you did not ask questions regarding a patient’s ability to afford emergency room visits in life-threatening conditions. Still, efforts should be made to save the patient’s life and stabilize him. Unaware to some patients, insurance plans differ based on plans, premiums, and agreements.
Your insurance provider is also capable of not viewing most emergency conditions as an emergency. If this is the case, you find yourself in a case with your insurance provider over covering the cost for the care you have received.
If this eventually happens then, you are likely to pay for the services you have received out of your pocket. So the next question that might be racing through your mind is how to visit an emergency room if you do not have insurance coverage.
Evaluate Your Condition
It is a known fact that emergency rooms charge high for any service they render, and if your condition isn’t urgent, you are likely to wait longer than expected. However, if you feel the need to visit an emergency room without an insurance card, then calling to find out how much the visit is going to cost would be a wise step so you can check your pocket and figure out how to go about it. If there are no discount rates, other medical facilities should be considered, such as community clinics, urgent care centers, and public hospitals.
Awaiting Treatment
Visiting the emergency room means you would get immediate attention because they cannot delay while inquiring whether you have an insurance card or not. In addition, the patient might be unconscious, and they would not allow the condition to worsen because they do not have the right information about the patient’s insurance details.
The hospital administration would make inquiries and assessments of the payment plan when the patient has been stabilized. At this point, the patient is stable and can have a conversation.
Transfer Of Patient
The hospital would transfer a patient if it doesn’t have the right facilities to treat a patient, but both hospitals need to reach an agreement regarding the patient’s care.
Declining Treatment
Emergency rooms are not part of Medicare, but they are run to make profits. This is why they would decline to treat a patient if the condition isn’t a life-threatening one. For example, if you visit a hospital with a small bruise or the flu and claim you do not have the means to pay, the hospital would refuse to admit you.
If this happens then, the patient would be advised to visit a clinic run by the government or a hospital that isn’t run for the business of making profits.
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