He thought he was strolling into an pressing care clinic. Then he obtained an ER invoice : Photographs

In extreme ache and unsure of its trigger, Tieqiao Zhang of Dallas says he didn’t need to watch for an appointment together with his common physician, however he additionally wasn’t positive if he wanted emergency care. He visited a clinic on the campus of Dallas’ largest public hospital — and was charged 10 occasions what he anticipated.

Laura Buckman/KFF Well being Information

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Laura Buckman/KFF Well being Information

One night final December, Tieqiao Zhang felt extreme abdomen ache.

After it subsided later that night time, he thought it is perhaps meals poisoning. When the ache returned the subsequent morning, Zhang realized the supply of his ache may not be as “easy as dangerous meals.”

He didn’t need to watch for an appointment together with his common physician, however he additionally wasn’t positive if the ache warranted emergency care, he stated.

Zhang, 50, opted to go to Parkland Well being’s Pressing Care Emergency Heart, a clinic close to his dwelling in Dallas the place he’d been handled prior to now. It’s on the campus of Parkland, the town’s largest public hospital, which has a separate emergency room.

He believed the clinic was an pressing care heart, he stated.

A CAT scan revealed that Zhang had a kidney stone. A doctor advised him it will move naturally inside a couple of days, and Zhang was despatched dwelling with a prescription for painkillers, he stated.

5 days later, Zhang’s abdomen ache worsened. Frightened and unable to get a direct appointment with a urologist, Zhang as soon as once more visited the Pressing Care Emergency Heart and once more was suggested to attend and see, he stated.

Two weeks later, Zhang handed the kidney stone.

Then the payments got here.

The affected person: Tieqiao Zhang, 50, who’s insured by BlueCross and BlueShield of Texas via his employer.

Medical providers: Two diagnostic visits, together with lab exams and CAT scans.

Service supplier: Parkland Well being & Hospital System. The hospital is a part of the Dallas County Hospital District.

Whole payments: The in-network hospital charged $19,543 for the 2 visits. BlueCross and BlueShield of Texas paid $13,070.96. Zhang owed $1,000 to Parkland — a $500 emergency room copay for every of his two visits.

What offers: Parkland’s Pressing Care Emergency Heart is what’s referred to as a freestanding emergency division.

The variety of freestanding emergency rooms in the USA grew tenfold from 2001 to 2016, drawing consideration for sending sufferers eye-popping payments. Most states permit them to function, both by regulation or lack thereof. Some states, together with Texas, have taken steps to control the facilities, corresponding to requiring posted notices figuring out the power as a freestanding emergency division.

Pressing care facilities are a extra acquainted possibility for a lot of sufferers. Analysis exhibits that, on common, pressing care visits could be about 10 occasions cheaper than a low-acuity — or much less extreme — go to to an ER.

However the distinction between an pressing care clinic and a freestanding emergency room could be robust to discern.

Usually, to invoice as an emergency division, services should meet particular necessities, corresponding to sustaining sure employees, not refusing sufferers and remaining open across the clock.

The freestanding emergency division at Parkland is 40 yards away from its primary emergency room and operates underneath the identical license, based on Michael Malaise, the spokesperson for Parkland Well being. It’s closed nights and Sundays.

(Parkland’s president and chief govt officer, Frederick Cerise, is a member of KFF’s board of trustees. KFF Well being Information is an editorially unbiased program of KFF.)

The hospital is “very clear” in regards to the heart’s standing as an emergency room, Malaise advised KFF Well being Information in a press release.

Malaise offered pictures of posted notices stating, “This facility is a freestanding emergency medical care facility,” and warning that sufferers could be charged emergency room charges and is also charged a facility price. He stated the notices had been posted within the examination rooms, foyer and halls on the time of Zhang’s visits.

Zhang’s well being plan required a $500 emergency room copay for every of the 2 visits for his kidney stone.

When Zhang visited the middle in 2021 for a distinct well being difficulty, he was charged solely $30, his plan’s copay for pressing care, he stated. (A overview of his insurance coverage paperwork confirmed Parkland additionally used emergency division billing codes then. BCBS of Texas didn’t reply to questions on that go to.)

One motive, “I went to the pressing care as an alternative of emergency room, though they’re simply subsequent door, is the copayment,” he stated.

The checklist of providers that Parkland’s freestanding emergency room affords resembles that of pressing care facilities — together with, for some facilities, diagnosing a kidney stone, stated Ateev Mehrotra, a well being care coverage professor at Harvard Medical College.

Having decisions leaves sufferers on their very own to decipher not solely the severity of their ailment, but additionally what sort of facility they’re visiting all whereas coping with a well being concern. Self-triage is “a really tough factor,” Mehrotra stated.

Zhang stated he didn’t recall seeing posted notices figuring out the middle as a freestanding emergency division throughout his visits, nor did the entrance desk employees point out a $500 copay. Plus, he knew Parkland additionally had an emergency room, and that was not the constructing he visited, he stated.

The title is “deceptive,” Zhang stated. “It’s like being tricked.”

Parkland opened the middle in 2015 to scale back the variety of sufferers in its primary emergency room, which is the busiest within the nation, Malaise stated. He added that the Pressing Care Emergency Heart, which is staffed with emergency room suppliers, is “an extension of our primary emergency room and is clearly marked in a number of locations as such.”

Malaise first advised KFF Well being Information that the power isn’t a freestanding ER, noting that it’s positioned in a hospital constructing on the campus. Days later, he stated the middle is “held out to the general public as a freestanding emergency medical care facility throughout the definition offered by Texas regulation.”

The Pressing Care Emergency Heart title is meant to forestall first responders and others going through life-threatening emergencies from visiting the middle fairly than the primary emergency room, Malaise stated.

“If in case you have concepts for a greater title, definitely you may ship that alongside for us to think about,” he stated.

Placing the time period “pressing” within the clinic’s title whereas charging emergency room costs is “disingenuous,” stated Benjamin Ukert, an assistant professor of well being economics and coverage at Texas A&M College.

When Ukert reviewed Zhang’s payments on the request of KFF Well being Information, he stated his first response was, “Wow, I’m glad that he solely obtained charged $500; it may have been method worse” — for example, if the power had been out-of-network.

The decision: Zhang stated he paid $400 of the $1,000 he owes in whole to keep away from collections whereas he continues to dispute the quantity.

Zhang stated he first reached out to his insurer, pondering his payments had been flawed, earlier than he reached out to Parkland a number of occasions by cellphone and e mail. He stated customer support representatives advised him that, for billing functions, Parkland doesn’t differentiate its Pressing Care Emergency Clinic from its emergency division.

BlueCross and BlueShield of Texas didn’t reply to KFF Well being Information when requested for remark.

Zhang stated he additionally reached out to a county commissioner’s workplace in Dallas, which by no means responded, and to the Texas Division of Well being, which stated it doesn’t have jurisdiction over billing issues. He stated employees for his state consultant, Morgan Meyer, contacted the hospital on his behalf, however later advised him the hospital wouldn’t change his invoice.

As of mid-Could, his steadiness stood at $600, or $300 for every go to.

The takeaway: Lawmakers in Texas and across the nation have tried to extend worth transparency at freestanding emergency rooms, together with by requiring them handy out disclosures about billing practices.

However consultants stated the burden nonetheless falls disproportionately on sufferers to navigate the rising menu of choices for care.

It’s as much as the affected person to stroll into the fitting constructing, stated Mehrotra, the Harvard professor. It doesn’t assist that almost all suppliers are opaque about their billing practices, he stated.

Mehrotra stated that some freestanding emergency departments in Texas use complicated names like “full care,” which masks the services’ capabilities and billing construction.

Ukert stated states may do extra to untangle the confusion sufferers face at such facilities, like banning using the time period “pressing care” to explain services that invoice like emergency departments.

KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is likely one of the core working packages at KFF — the unbiased supply for well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. 

Emmarie Huetteman of KFF Well being Information edited the digital story, and Taunya English of KFF Well being Information edited the audio story. NPR’s Will Stone edited the audio and digital story.