Free Emergency Room Care

Freestanding emergency rooms fers fall into two categories hospital based and independent.

Free emergency room care. No matter what your insurance status hospitals and emergencies room must provide adequate care if your situation qualifies as an emergency. Some visits will not qualify under the formal definition of an emergency. You pay a copayment for each emergency department visit and a copayment for each hospital service. A medical emergency is an injury illness or symptom so severe that without immediate treatment you believe your life or health is in danger.

During a medical emergency veterans should immediately seek care at the nearest medical facility. Freestanding emergency rooms a freestanding or stand alone er is a relatively new invention cropping up all over the country. Visiting an urgent care facility for non life threatening events. A hospital based fer is located within 35 miles of its affiliated hospital and is held to the same medicare conditions of participation and licensing standards as the main medical campus.

The facility licensing group is dedicated to assist you through this process and is available to answer your questions. A summary of emergency healthcare it is common to see social media statements that everyone can receive medical care at any hospital emergency room. Today the centers for medicare medicaid services cms issued critical guidance allowing licensed independent freestanding emergency departments ifeds in colorado delaware rhode island and texas to temporarily provide care to medicare and medicaid patients to address any surge. 29 2018 the emergency medical treatment and labor act or emtala guarantees a certain level of medical care to anyone who comes to an emergency department that accepts payments from.

If you re admitted to the same hospital for a related condition within 3 days of your emergency department visit you don t pay the copayment because your visit is considered. Free standing emergency medical care facility enforcement actions september 2019 august 2020 pdf contact information. Under the emtala law everyone is entitled to medical care at participating hospitals in an emergency but the care is not free and we all pay for it. Currently around 35 states allow for these freestanding emergency centers.

The emergency medical treatment and active labor act emtala is an act of the united states congress passed in 1986 as part of the consolidated omnibus budget reconciliation act cobra. It requires hospital emergency departments that accept payments from medicare to provide an appropriate medical screening examination mse to anyone seeking treatment for a medical condition regardless of. Going to an emergency room for non life threatening care. You also pay 20 of the medicare approved amount for your doctor s services and the part b deductible glossary applies.