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Urgent Care Locations

Urgent Care FAQs

• What is urgent care?

  The concept of urgent care is to serve a gap in the healthcare market when your primary care physician is not available while your injury or illness does not constitute a visit to the emergency room (ER). An urgent care is a walk-in clinic that specializes in the delivery of non-emergent healthcare conditions, including the treatment of most common injuries and illnesses including sprains and fractures, scrapes, cuts and burns, bites and stings, cold and flu symptoms, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, and much more. Additionally, urgent care centers provide both diagnostic and preventative care including well visits, STD testing annual physicals and immunizations like flu shots. Patients should typically expect to pay between $20-100 for routine visits and services and most clinics will accept major insurance plans and PPOs, Medicare, and of course self-pay patients with cash or a major credit card.

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

  Urgent care centers could be considered a hybrid between a primary care physicians (PCPs) office and an emergency room, serving the immediate and after hours needs of nearby patients. Many urgent care operators even indicate they can diagnose and treat up to 75% of the patients typically seen in an ER. The real difference is in the patient experience as the average ER wait time is nearly 2.5 hours whereas an urgent care will likely only be 15-45 minutes and the cost is usually a fraction of what you would incur. In the case of a medical emergency, always go to an ER as an urgent care is designed for non-emergent and more minor injuries and illnesses.

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

  Urgent care center, walk-in clinic, immediate care clinic, retail clinic, convenient care clinic; the terms are used often interchangeably these days. Then there are emergency rooms, which also get tossed into the mix to further complicate the conversation. Essentially, any clinic that allows patients to walk-in with no advance appointment is a walk-in clinic. An urgent care center represents a subset of the walk-in clinic model that generally offers extended hours, expanded services and capabilities and on-site x-rays and lab tests.

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• How much does an urgent care cost?

  Urgent care centers vary by location and there are no real standards between them. This means that one urgent care clinic might charge you $75 while another one a mile away could charge $150, assuming you are a cash paying patient. However, in general the cost of an urgent care visit without insurance ranges from $100-125. This is the base price of a visit before additional services. Of course, there are a few additional urgent care services that could make your visit more costly including medication and injections (including immunizations), tests, labs and x-rays, casting broken bones, as well as splints and stitches. If you are walking in with insurance, typical co-pays wil range from $20-50 depending on your plan and whether you are in network with the provider.

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• Is insurance accepted at urgent care centers?

  Each insurance provider determines if it covers urgent care centers or not. And individual clinics and providers may or may not have a relationship with a specific carrier (or plan). This makes it complicated, for sure. However, in most cases insurance providers will cover urgent care and patients will be expected to pay a co-payment for each visit. In some rare cases, an urgent care center may choose not to accept your insurance, even if your insurance provider would otherwise pay for the care. While you could safely assume that an urgent care center will take your insurance, it is always best to call ahead and be certain.

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