Florida freestanding ER bills stun patients after routine visits
Katherine oversees editorial operations across all six brands. Before joining The Meridan Group, she spent 14 years at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where she led the metro desk through its digital transformation. She holds a Master's in Journalism from Northwestern's Medill School.
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Freestanding emergency departments have become increasingly difficult to miss across Tampa Bay.These facilities promise convenient access to emergency care without requiring patients to travel to a traditional hospital campus.But several patients told the Tampa Bay 28 I-Team that they did not fully understand the potential cost when they walked through the doors. One patient said his insurer was billed more than $8,000 after a doctor treated his dislocated finger.Another said a freestanding emergency room billed $35,000 following a visit for rabies vaccinations.A third patient received more than $17,000 in charges after suffering a head injury. I think theres something really broken here, Abram Jacobson said. And I know Im not the only one, and this was a really trivial instance.Freestanding emergency departments expand across FloridaFlorida has 166 hospital-based, off-campus emergency departments, accounting for nearly 2 million visits, according to information reviewed by the I-Team.