Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

New Data Reveal ED Spending Rose 85% Between 2009 and 2015

Emergency department spending jumped 85% over a 7-year period ending in 2015, according to new research by the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), even though ED use remained relatively stable. The reason for the increase in spending, according to the report, is that hospitals coded and charged more for high-severity cases during that timeframe. Drawing on charges associated with more than 70 million ED bills, HCCI found that visits billed to CPT codes 99285 and …

JAMA Article Adds Fuel to ED vs Urgent Care Cost Comparison

If it were a nation unto itself, the U.S. healthcare system would have the fifth-largest economy in the world. As it is, it accounts for more than 17% of the U.S. economy—with spending in the emergency room being the fastest-growing portion, according to a new article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. U.S. Spending on Personal Health Care and Public Health, 1996-2013, by Joseph L. Dieleman, PhD, points out that Americans spend more …

Increases in Cost of Care Outpace Income and Overall Spending

A breakdown of consumer spending from the Bureau of Labor Statistics supports the notion that the high cost of healthcare encourages patients to seek care in less traditional settings like urgent care. Data for 2012–2014, the most current available, show that 19 percent of total healthcare spending is out of pocket—and that figures is still on the rise. With an increase of 20.6%, increases in total spending for healthcare far outpaced income before taxes (up …