Florida is one of the states where hospitals are building freestanding emergency departments in upscale suburbs to beef up patient flow to the mother ship and enhance their bottom line. HCA is opening its seventh such facility in Florida this year, as Phil Galewitz of Kaiser Health News reports.
These standalone ERs charge extra hundreds of dollars for a “facility fee” that urgent-care centers unaffiliated with hospitals do not. Patients may not know the difference, and if they’re well-insured, they may not care.
Last November, theSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Nicole Brochu described the proliferation of these freestanding emergency departments and the effects they’re having.