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Urgent Care FAQs

• What is urgent care?

  Urgent care are available to assist patients that are looking for immediate, convenient medical care. In that manner, they are similar to an emergency room. The difference, however, is that ERs are meant to treat major, life-threatening injuries and illnesses while urgent care centers manage life’s minor bruises and bumps. In simple terms, an urgent care is seen as a walk-in health center that focuses in offering non-emergent health care conditions, including the treatment of the typical illnesses and injuries such as fractures and sprains, cuts and burns, scrapes, stings and bites, flu and cold symptoms, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and much more. Most urgent care facilities offer both diagnostic and preventive care such as well visits, immunizations, STD testing and annual physicals. For regular visits and check-ups on these clinics, you should expect to pay between $20 and $100. The good thing is that most urgent care clinics will accept major PPOs and insurance cover, Medicare, as well as self-pay in the form of credit cards or cash. Urgent care clinics are located in most parts of the country in various regions to offset emergency room visits and provide a gap in healthcare services. They take patients during all hours of operations, which offer a significant convenience to most people who have and continue to undergo the need for sudden and immediate medical attention.

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• When should I go to the urgent care vs emergency room (ER)?

  Urgent care facilities are seen as a combination between an emergency room (ER) and a PCP (Primary Care Physicians), serving the instant and after hours requirements of neighboring patients. Most urgent care clinics even say that they can diagnose and treat up to seventy-five percent of the patients who visit an emergency room. The primary difference between an ER and Urgent care is the experience of the patient. The average waiting time in an ER is almost 2.5 hours while waiting time in urgent care is between 15 and 45 minutes. The cost of urgent care is usually a fraction of what you would pay in an emergency room. It is advisable to visit an emergency room in situations of medical emergency because urgent care clinics are meant for minor and non-emergent illnesses and injuries.

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• What's the difference between an urgent care and walk-in clinic?

  You will often see the terms urgent care clinic, retail clinic, immediate care clinic, walk-in clinic, and convenient clinic being interchangeably used nowadays. The emergence of emergency rooms complicated the conversation. A walk-in clinic is a type of clinic in which patients can walk-in with no advance appointment. An urgent care clinic, on the other hand, denotes a subgroup of the walk-in clinic model that typically provides extended hours, extended services and abilities as well as on-site lab tests and x-rays.

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• How much does an urgent care cost?

  The price charged in urgent care will be based on the location, and there are no actual standard costs between the clinics. Assuming you are paying with cash, you might come across an urgent clinic that charges you $50 while another situated some mile away charges you $100 for the same services. The standard cost in urgent care where insurance cover is not involved ranges from $100 to $125. This price is generally the standard price of a visit before extra services. There are a couple of additional care services that could make your appointment to an urgent care costly including x-rays and lab tests, medications and injections (such as immunization), casting broken bones, as well as stitches and splints. If you have a viable insurance plan in place, the standard pay will be between $20 – 50 depending on your insurance coverage and whether you are in contact with the provider.

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• Is insurance accepted at urgent care centers?

  All insurance providers indicate whether their plan covers urgent care facilities or not. Individual clinics and providers may or may not possess a relationship with a particular plan. This aspect makes the scenario complicated. In most situations, insurance providers will cover the urgent care centers, and patients will be needed to pay a co-payment every time they visit the facility. In other rare occasions, it is common for the urgent care facilities to reject some insurance plans even if the provider has indicated that they will pay for the costs incurred. With these uncertainties, it is always advisable to call urgent care centers in advance to determine whether they accept specific insurance plans or not.

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