TexasCHLforum.com

Steve W wrote: ↑Mon Oct 08, 2018 11:02 pm In Texas all private ER's are required to post a "menu" of their procedures, and their costs, up front in the lobby...

I'm lucky that I live near Collage Station and the Hospital ER's are great so I have never been inside a stand alone. I do know a Doctor that owns one...

What is the definition of private in this case? Not owned or operated by a larger hospital? Most hospitals are privately owned.

In some cases I suppose it depends on who is operating the stand alone ER. I only have experience with two such places and both are operated by larger hospitals to better serve the community where the larger hospitals are either several miles away or for non-trauma type emergencies. What comes to mind is for stuff like stitches, but I'm sure there are also other things. I'm a Medical Technologist and work in a hospital laboratory that supports the laboratory testing done by the small lab in one of those ERs. They are very limited in what they can do. They do a LOT of strep. and flu testing that still seems to flood our main ER during the season. I would say that I wouldn't be able to imagine how many more folks would be clogging up our ER just to find out if they have the flu or strep. throat, but I can check our satellite lab's test load and find out. It's amazing how many people clog up an ER because they don't know any better or don't have a regular doctor they can go to or don't have any insurance and come to a hospital ER because they won't be turned away.

So, while some of them might be rip-offs, I know the costs for ER like I described above are going to be exactly the same. For a doc-in-the-box type ER that is not associated (has the same name) as a larger hospital I don't know. Maybe?