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How much does an ER visit cost?
$1,500 – $3,000 average cost without insurance (non-life-threatening condition), $0 – $500 average cost with insurance (after meeting deductible).
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Average ER visit cost
An ER visit costs $1,500 to $3,000 on average without insurance, with most people spending about $2,100 for an urgent, non-life-threatening health issue. The cost of an emergency room visit depends on the severity of the condition and the tests, treatments, and medications needed to treat it.
![Average ER visit cost - Chart Average ER visit cost - Chart](https://static.bettercare.com/assets/images/content/bettercare-average-emergency-room-visit-cost-chart.jpg)
Cost data is from research and project costs reported by BetterCare members.
Emergency room visit cost with insurance
The cost of an ER visit for an insured patient varies according to the insurance plan and the nature and severity of their condition. Some plans cover a percentage of the total cost once you meet your deductible, while others charge an average co-pay of $50 to $500 .
The No Surprises Act , effective January 1, 2022, protects insured individuals from unreasonably high medical bills for emergency services received from out-of-network providers at in-network facilities. The act also established a dispute resolution process for both insured and uninsured or self-pay individuals.
Cost of an ER visit without insurance
An ER visit costs $1,500 to $3,000 on average without insurance for non-life-threatening conditions. Costs can reach $20,000+ for critical conditions requiring extensive testing or emergency surgery. Essentially, the more severe your condition or issue, the more you are likely to pay for the ER visit.
Factors that impact ER visit costs
Many factors affect the cost of an ER visit, including:
Facility type – Freestanding emergency departments often cost 50% more than hospital-based emergency rooms.
Time of day – An ER visit at night typically costs more than the same type of visit during the day.
Level of care – The more severe your condition is, the more time and expertise it takes to diagnose and treat, and the higher the total ER visit cost.
Ambulance ride – An ambulance ride costs $500 to $1,300 on average, depending on whether you need basic or advanced life support during transport.
Medications – Oral medications, injections, or IVs needed during your stay all add the total cost of your ER visit.
Medical equipment & supplies – Any other supplies used to diagnose and treat you—such as a cast for a broken bone or bandages and sutures to close an open wound—increase the cost.
Testing – Each medical test is typically a separate charge. Tests may include urine tests, blood tests, X-rays, or other more advanced imaging tests.
Insurance coverage:
Out-of-pocket costs may be higher for those with high-deductible insurance plans.
While ER visit costs are generally higher for the uninsured, many hospitals offer discounts for self-pay patients.
![The emergency room entrance at a hospital. The emergency room entrance at a hospital.](https://static.bettercare.com/assets/images/content/bettercare-emergency-room-entrance-at-hospital.jpg)
ER facility fee by level
An ER facility fee ranges from $200 to $4,000 , depending on the severity level of your symptoms and condition. The facility fee is the cost to walk in the door and be evaluated by a physician. Other services you may need, such as lab tests, imaging, and surgical procedures, are charged separately.
To understand your ER bill: Emergency rooms rank severity levels 1 through 5, with Level 1 being the most severe or urgent. However, most of the billing codes for emergency room visits are reversed, with level 1 being the least severe.
Common conditions and procedures
The table below shows the average ER visit cost for common ailments. Prices vary greatly depending on how much testing and expertise is required to accurately diagnose and treat you.
![Beds in a hospital emergency room. Beds in a hospital emergency room.](https://static.bettercare.com/assets/images/content/bettercare-beds-in-a-hospital-emergency-room.jpg)
Emergency room vs. urgent care
An ER visit costs $1,500 to $3,000 , while the average urgent care visit costs $150 to $250 without insurance. Urgent care facilities can treat most non-life-threatening conditions and typically have less wait time than the ER. For more detail, check out our guide comparing the cost of an emergency room vs. urgent care .
Other alternatives to the ER for less serious health issues include primary care, telemedicine, and free clinics. Check with the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics to find a free clinic near you.
FAQs about ER visit costs
Why are er visits so expensive.
ER visits are expensive because emergency rooms run on a 24-hour schedule and require a large and wide range of staff, including front desk personnel, maintenance, nurses, doctors, and surgeons. ERs also run and maintain a lot of expensive equipment and need a constant supply of medications and medical supplies.
While ER visits can be expensive, ER bills are negotiable. If you receive an unexpectedly large ER bill, ask for a discount and question the coding.
Does insurance cover ER visits?
Insurance typically covers some or all of an ER visit, though you may need to meet a deductible first, depending on the plan. The Affordable Care Act requires insurance providers to cover ER visits for "emergency medical conditions" without prior authorization and regardless of whether they are in or out-of-network.
An "emergency medical condition" is considered something so severe that a reasonable person would seek help right away to avoid serious harm.
When should you go to the ER?
You should go to the ER for any serious, potentially life-threatening symptoms, including:
Trouble breathing
Serious head injury
Sudden severe pain
Severe burn
Severe allergic reaction
Major broken bones
Uncontrollable bleeding
Suddenly feeling weak or unable to move, speak, or walk
Sudden change in vision
Sudden confusion
Fever that does not resolve with over-the-counter medicine
Tips to reduce your ER bill
An ER visit can cost thousands of dollars, even if you have insurance. Here are some guidelines to ensure you are not overpaying:
Determine if you truly need an emergency room. If your health issue is not life threatening, consider going to an urgent care facility instead as the cost for the same care can be much less.
Go to a hospital-based ER. Freestanding ER centers typically cost much more than a hospital-based emergency room.
Call ahead to confirm payment options and the current wait time.
Ask about costs up front. If you are uninsured, consider asking the following questions to prevent you from surprises on your future bill:
Do you have discounted pricing for patients without insurance?
Will it cost less if I pay with cash?
What will the fee be for my specific issue?
Do you think I will need additional tests, and what will they cost?
How much do you charge for X-rays?
If I need medication, how much will it cost?
Using our proprietary cost database, in-depth research, and collaboration with industry experts, we deliver accurate, up-to-date pricing and insights you can trust, every time.
![How much does urgent care cost without insurance? Urgent care cost without insurance](https://static.bettercare.com/assets/images/content/bettercare-urgent-care-facility-sign-at-entrance-thumbnail.jpg)
- An emergency room visit typically is covered by health insurance. For patients covered by health insurance, out-of-pocket cost for an emergency room visit typically consists of a copay, usually $50-$150 or more, which often is waived if the patient is admitted to the hospital. Depending on the plan, costs might include coinsurance of 10% to 50%.
- For patients without health insurance, an emergency room visit typically costs from $150-$3,000 or more, depending on the severity of the condition and what diagnostic tests and treatment are performed. In some cases, especially where critical care is required and/or a procedure or surgery is performed, the cost could reach $20,000 or more. For example, at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in Minnesota, a low-level emergency room visit, such as for a minor laceration, a skin rash or a minor viral infection, costs about $150 ; a moderate-level visit, such as for a urinary tract infection with fever or a head injury without neurological symptoms, about $400 ; and a high-level visit, such as for chest pains that require multiple diagnostic tests or treatments, or severe burns or ingestion of a toxic substance, about $1,000, not including the doctor fees. At Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center[ 1 ] , a low-level emergency room visit costs about $220, including hospital charge and doctor fee, with the uninsured discount, while a moderate-level visit costs about $610 and a high-level visit about $1,400 .
- Services, diagnostic tests and laboratory fees add to the final bill. For example, Wooster Community Hospital, in Ohio, charges about $170 for a simple suture, $200 for a complex suture, about $170 for a minor procedure and about $400 for a major procedure, not including doctor fees, medicine or supplies.
- A doctor fee could add hundreds or thousands of dollars to the final cost. For example, at Grand Lake Health System[ 2 ] in Ohio, an emergency room doctor charges about $100 for basic care, such as a wound recheck or simple laceration repair; about $300 for mid-level care, such as treatment of a simple fracture; about $870 for advanced-level care, such as frequent monitoring of vital signs and ordering multiple diagnostic tests, administering sedation or a blood transfusion for a seriously injured or ill patient; and about $1,450 for critical care, such as major trauma care or major burn care that could include chest tube insertion and management of IV medications and ventilator for a patient with a complex, life-threatening condition. At the Kettering Health Network, in Ohio, a low-level visit costs about $350, a high-level visit costs about $2,000 and critical care costs almost $1,700 for the first hour and $460 for each additional half hour; ER procedures or surgeries cost $460-$2,300 .
- According to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality[ 3 ] the average emergency room expense in 2008 was $1,265 .
- According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2008, about 18%of emergency room patients waited less than 15 minutes to see a doctor, about 37%waited 15 minutes to an hour, about 15% waited one to two hours, about 5% waited two to three hours, about 2% waited three to four hours, and about 1.5% waited four to six hours.
- In some cases, the doctor might recommend the patient be admitted to the hospital. The American College of Emergency Physicians Foundation offers a guide[ 4 ] on what to expect.
- An ambulance ride typically costs $400-$1,200 or more, depending on the location and services performed.
- An urgent care center offers substantial savings for more minor ailments. DukeHealth.org offers a guide[ 5 ] on when to seek urgent care. An urgent care visit typically costs between 20% and 50% of the cost of an emergency room visit. MainStreetMedica.com offers a cost-comparison tool for common ailments.
- Hospitals often offer discounts of up to 50% or more for self-pay/uninsured emergency room patients. For example, Ventura County Medical Center[ 6 ] in California offers ER visits, including the doctor fee and emergency room fee but not including lab tests, X-rays or procedures, for $150 for patients up to 200% of the federal poverty level, for $225 for patients between 200% and 500% of the federal poverty level and $350 for patients from 500% to 700% of the federal poverty level.
- The American College of Emergency Physicians Foundation offers a primer[ 7 ] on when to go to the emergency room.
- In most cases, it is recommended to go to the nearest emergency room. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers a hospital-comparison tool[ 8 ] that lists hospitals near a chosen zip code.
- patients.dartmouth-hitchcock.org/billing_questions/out_of_pocket_estimator_dhmc.ht...
- www.grandlakehealth.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106&Itemid=60
- meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/tables_compendia_hh_interactive.jsp?_SERVICE=MEPS...
- www.EmergencyCareforYou.org/VitalCareMagazine/ER101/Default.aspx?id=1288
- www.dukehealth.org/health_library/health_articles/wheretogo
- resources.vchca.org/documents/SELF%20PAY%20DISCOUNT%20GRID%20-%20BOARD%20LETTER%20...
- www.EmergencyCareforYou.org/YourHealth/AboutEmergencies/Default.aspx?id=26018
- www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/(S(efntd2saaeir2l5pgarwuvvg))/search.aspx?AspxAut...
How Much Does an ER Visit Cost? Free Local Cost Calculator
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It’s true that you can’t plan for a medical emergency, but that doesn’t mean you have to be surprised when it’s time to pay your hospital bill. In 2021, the U.S. government enacted price transparency rules for hospitals in order to demystify health care costs. That means it should be easier to get answers to questions like how much an ER visit costs.
While the question seems pretty straightforward, the answer is more complicated. Your cost will vary based on factors such as if you’re insured, whether you’ve met your deductible, the type of plan you have, and what your plan covers.
There is a lot to consider. This guide will take you through specific scenarios and answer questions about insurance plans, deductibles, co-payments, and discuss scenarios such as how much it costs if you go to the ER when it isn’t an emergency.
You’ll learn a few industry secrets too. Did you know that if you don’t have insurance you might see a higher bill? According to the Wall Street Journal , it’s common for hospitals to charge uninsured and self-pay patients higher rates than insured patients for the same services. So, where can you go if you can’t afford to go to the ER?
Keep reading for all this plus real-life examples and cost-saving tips.
How Much Does an ER Visit Cost Without Insurance?
Everything is more expensive in the ER. According to UnitedHealth, a trip to the emergency department can cost 12 times more than a typical doctor’s office visit. The average ER visit is $2,200, and doesn’t include procedures or medications.
If you want to get a better idea of what an ER visit will cost in your area, check out our medical price comparison tool that analyzes data from thousands of hospitals.
Compare Procedure Costs Near You
Other out-of-pocket expenses you may incur include bills from third parties. A growing number of emergency departments in the United States have become business entities separate from the hospital. So, third-party providers may bill you too, like:
- EMS services, like an ambulance or helicopter
- ER physicians
- Attending physician
- Consulting physicians
- Advanced practice nurses (CRNA, NP)
- Physician assistants (PA)
- Physical therapists (PT)
And if your insurance company fails to pay, you may have to pay these expenses out-of-pocket.
How Much Does an ER Visit Cost With Insurance?
The easiest way to estimate out-of-pocket expenses for an ER visit (or any other health care service) is to read your insurance policy. You’ll want to look for information around these terms:
- Deductible: The amount you have to pay out-of-pocket before your insurance kicks in .
- Copay: A set fee you pay upfront before a covered medical service or procedure.
- Coinsurance: The percentage you pay for a service or a procedure once you’ve met the deductible.
- Out-of-pocket maximum: The most you will pay for covered services in a rolling year. Once met, your insurance company will pay 100% of covered expenses for the rest of the year.
Closely related to out-of-pocket expenses like deductibles and co-insurance are premiums. A premium is the monthly fee you (or your sponsor) pay to the insurance company for coverage. If you pay a higher premium, you’ll have a lower deductible and fewer out-of-pocket costs whenever you use your insurance to pay for services such as a visit to the ER. The opposite is also true — high deductible health plans (HDHP) offer lower monthly payments but much higher deductibles.
Sample ER Visit Cost
Using a few examples from plans available on the Marketplace on Healthcare.gov (current as of November 2021), here’s how this might play out in real life:
Rob is a young, healthy, single guy. He knows he needs health insurance but he feels reasonably sure that the only time he’d ever use it is in case of an emergency. Here’s the plan he chooses:
Plan: Blue Cross/Blue Shield Bronze Monthly premium: $394 Deductible: $7,000 Out-of-pocket maximum: $7,000 ER coverage: 100% after meeting the deductible
Rob does the math and considers the worst case scenario. If he does go to the ER, he’ll pay full price if he hasn’t yet met his deductible. But since both his deductible and his maximum out-of-pocket are the same, $7,000 is the most he’ll have to pay before his insurance kicks in at 100%.
Now imagine that Rob gets married and is about to start a family. He might need a different insurance plan to account for more hospital bills, doctors appointments, and inevitable emergency room visits.
Since Rob knows he’ll be using his insurance more often, he picks a plan with a lower deductible that covers more things.
Plan: Bright HealthCare Gold Monthly premium: $643 Deductible: $0 Out-of-pocket maximum: $6,500 ER coverage: $500 Vision: $0 Generic prescription: $0 Primary care: $0 Specialist: $40
This time Rob goes with a zero deductible plan with a higher monthly premium. It’s more out-of-pocket each month, but since his plan covers doctor’s visits, prescription drugs, and vision, he feels more prepared as his lifestyle shifts into family mode.
If he has to go to the ER for any reason, all he’ll pay is $500 and his insurance pays the rest. And worse case scenario, the most he’ll pay out-of-pocket in a year is $6,500.
How Much Does an ER Visit Cost if You Have Medicare?
Medicare Part A only covers an emergency room visit if you’re admitted to the hospital. Medicare Part B covers 100% of most ER costs for most injuries, or if you become suddenly ill. Unlike private insurance and insurance purchased on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace, Medicare rarely covers ER visits that happen while you’re outside of the United States.
To learn more, read: How to Use the Healthcare Marketplace to Buy Insurance
How Much Does an ER Visit Cost for Non-Emergencies?
![average cost for emergency room visit Mother consulting doctor at ER visit](https://www.compare.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/mother-and-baby-consulting-a-doctor.jpeg)
When you have a sick child but lack insurance, haven’t met your deductible, or if you’re between paychecks, just knowing you can go to the ER without being hassled for money feels like such a relief. ER staff won’t demand payment upfront, and they usually don’t ask about insurance or assess your ability to pay until after discharge.
There are other reasons, too. You might be tempted to go to the ER for situations that are less than emergent because emergency departments provide easy access to health services 24/7, including holidays and the odd hours when your primary care physician isn’t available. If you’re one of the 61 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured , you might go to the ER because you don’t know where else to go.
What you may not understand is the cost of an ER visit without insurance can total thousands of dollars. Consumers with ER bills that get sent to collections face some of the most aggressive debt collection practices of any industry. Collection accounts and charge-offs could affect your credit score for the better part of a decade.
Did you know that charges begin racking up as soon as you give the clerk your name and Social Security number? There are tons of horror stories out there about people receiving medical bills after waiting, some for many hours, and leaving without treatment.
4 ER Alternatives Ranked by Level of Care
First and foremost, if you’re experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the closest emergency room. Do not rely on this or any other website for advice or communication.
If you’re not sure whether your condition warrants immediate, high-level emergency care, you can always call your local ER and ask to speak to their triage nurse. They can quickly assess how urgent the situation is.
If you are looking for a lower-cost alternative to the ER, this list provides a few options. Each option is ranked by their ability to provide you with a certain level of care from emergent care to the lowest level, which is similar to the routine care you would receive at a doctor’s office.
1. Charitable Hospitals
There are around 1,400 charity hospitals , clinics, and pharmacies dedicated to serving low-income families, including the uninsured. Most charitable, not-for-profit medical centers provide emergency room services, making it a good option if you’re uninsured and worried about accruing substantial medical debt.
ERs at charitable hospitals provide the same type of medical care for conditions like trauma, broken bones, and life-threatening issues like chest pain and difficulty breathing. The major difference is the price tag. Emergency room fees at a charity hospital are usually flexible and almost always based on your income.
2. Urgent Care Centers
Urgent care centers are free-standing facilities designed to treat patients with serious but not life-threatening conditions. Also called “doc in a box,” these ambulatory care centers are a good choice for treating stable but chronic health issues, fever, urinary tract infections, back pain, abdominal pain, and moderately high blood pressure, to name a few.
Urgent care clinics usually have a medical doctor on-site. Some clinics offer point-of-care diagnostic tests like ultrasound and X-rays, as well as basic lab work. The average cost for an urgent care visit is around $180, according to UnitedHealth.
3. Retail Health Clinics
You may have noticed small retail health clinics (RHC) popping up in national drugstore chains like CVS, Walgreens, and in big-box stores like Target and Walmart. The Little Clinic is an example of an RHC that offers walk-in health care services at 190 supermarkets across the United States.
RHCs help low-acuity patients with minor medical problems like sore throat, cough, flu-like symptoms, and other conditions normally treated in a doctor’s office. If you think you’ll need lab tests or other procedures, an RHC may not be the best choice. Data from UnitedHealth puts the average cost for an RHC visit at $100.
4. Telehealth Visits
Telehealth, in some form, has been around for decades. Until recently, it was mostly used to provide access to care for patients living in the most remote or rural areas. Since 2020, telehealth visits over the phone, via chat, or through videoconferencing have become a legitimate and extremely cost-effective alternative to in-person office visits.
Telehealth is perfect for some types of mental health therapies, follow-up appointments, and triage. For self-pay, a telehealth visit only costs around $50, according to UnitedHealth.
Tips for Taking Control of Your Health Care
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- Don’t procrastinate. Delaying the care you need for too long will end up costing you more in the end.
- Switch your focus from reactive care to proactive care. Figuring out how to pay for an ER visit is a lot harder (and costlier) than preventing an ER visit in the first place. Data show that preventive health care measures lead to fewer illnesses and better outcomes.
- Plan for the unknown. It’s inevitable that at some point in your life you’ll need health care. Start a savings account fund or better yet, enroll in a health savings account (HSA). If you’re employed (even part-time) you already qualify for an HSA. A contribution of just $9 a paycheck could add up to $468 tax-free dollars for you to spend on health care every year. Unlike the use-it-or-lose-it savings plans of the past, modern plans don’t expire. You can use HSA dollars to pay for out-of-pocket costs like copayments, deductibles, and for services that your health insurance may not cover, like dental and vision services.
- Advocate for yourself. There is nothing more empowering than taking charge of your health. Shop around for services and compare prices on procedures to make sure you’re getting the best prices possible.
- If you are uninsured or doing self-pay, negotiate your bill and ask for a cash discount.
Estimate the Cost of the ER Before You Need It
It’s stressful to think about money when you’re facing an emergency. Research the costs of your nearest ER before you actually need to go with Compare.com’s procedure cost comparison tool .
All you have to do is enter your ZIP code and you’ll immediately see out-of-pocket costs for ER visits at your local emergency rooms. It works for other medical services too, like MRIs, routine screenings, outpatient procedures, and more. Find the treatment you need at a price you can afford.
Disclaimer: Compare.com does not offer medical advice and is in no way a substitute for any medical advice received from health professionals. Compare.com is unable to offer any advice on any medical procedure you may need.
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Nick Versaw leads Compare.com's editorial department, where he and his team specialize in crafting helpful, easy-to-understand content about car insurance and other related topics. With nearly a decade of experience writing and editing insurance and personal finance articles, his work has helped readers discover substantial savings on necessary expenses, including insurance, transportation, health care, and more.
As an award-winning writer, Nick has seen his work published in countless renowned publications, such as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and U.S. News & World Report. He graduated with Latin honors from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Digital Journalism.
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Estimates of Emergency Department Visits in the United States, 2016-2022
The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), collects annual data on visits to emergency departments to describe patterns of utilization and provision of ambulatory care delivery in the United States. Data are collected from nonfederal, general, and short-stay hospitals from all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and are used to develop nationally representative estimates.
This visualization depicts both counts and rates of emergency department visits from 2016-2022 for the 10 leading primary diagnoses and reasons for visit, stratified by selected patient and hospital characteristics. Rankings for the 10 leading categories were identified using weighted data from 2022 and were then assessed in prior years; however, rankings were relatively consistent over the evaluated years. See tables in the Definitions section below the visualization for changes in leading primary diagnoses and reasons for visit from 2016-2022. Estimates in this visualization highlight and expand on information provided in the annual NHAMCS web tables , which can be used to assess how these categories and rankings changed over the evaluated years.
Use the tabs at the bottom of the visualization to select between “Primary Diagnosis” and “Reason for Visit”. Use the drop-down menus at the top of the visualization to select the estimate type, the estimate category, and the group breakdown of interest.
Access Dataset on Data.CDC.gov (Export to CSV, JSON, XLS, XML) [?]
Definitions
Based on International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD–10–CM). See Table 11 of the NHAMCS: 2021 Emergency Department Summary Tables for code ranges of diagnosis categories, available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhamcs/web_tables/2021-nhamcs-ed-web-tables-508.pdf .
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2016-2022
Based on the patient’s own words and coded according to: Schneider D, Appleton L, McLemore T. A reason for visit classification for ambulatory care. National Center for Health Statistics. See Appendix II of the 2021 NHAMCS public-use documentation for code ranges of reason categories, available from: https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHAMCS/doc21-ed-508.pdf .
Calculated by dividing the number of ED visits by estimates of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population (obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Division) for selected characteristics including age, sex, and race and ethnicity. Visit rates for MSA are based on estimates of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population from the National Health Interview Survey, compiled according to the Office of Management and Budget definitions of core-based statistical areas. More information about MSA definitions is available from: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/metro-micro.html . Visit rates for patient’s expected source of payment are based on patient’s primary expected source of payment and proportional insurance data from the National Health Interview Survey.
During data collection, all sources of payment were collected. For patients with more than one source of payment, the hierarchy below was used (with Medicare counted first and self-pay and no charge counted last) to collapse payments into one mutually exclusive variable (expected source of payment). Visits that had a missing or unknown expected payment source were excluded (between 10-14% [weighted] from 2016-2022).
- Medicare: Partial or full payment by Medicare plan includes payments made directly to the hospital as well as payments reimbursed to the patient. Charges covered under a Medicare-sponsored prepaid plan are included.
- Medicaid: Partial or full payment by Medicaid plan includes payments made directly to the hospital or reimbursed to the patient. Charges covered under a Medicaid-sponsored prepaid plan (HMO) or “managed Medicaid” are included.
- Private: Partial or full payment by a private insurer (such as BlueCross BlueShield), either directly to the hospital or reimbursed to the patient. Charges covered under a private insurance-sponsored prepaid plan are included.
- Uninsured: Includes self-pay and no charge or charity. Self-pay are charges paid by the patient or patient’s family that will not be reimbursed by a third party. Self-pay includes visits for which the patient is expected to be responsible for most of the bill, even if the patient never actually pays it. This does not include copayments or deductibles. No charge or charity are visits for which no fee is charged (such as charity, special research, or teaching).
- Other: Includes Worker’s Compensation and other sources of payment not covered by the above categories, such as TRICARE, state and local governments, private charitable organizations, and other liability insurance (such as automobile collision policy coverage).
Race and Hispanic ethnicity were collected separately and converted into a single combined variable that includes non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic other people. Non-Hispanic other people includes Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native people, and people with two or more races. Missing values for race and ethnicity were imputed as described in the 2019 NHAMCS public-use documentation, available from: https://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHAMCS/doc19-ed-508.pdf .
Please send comments or questions to [email protected] .
Data Source
National Center for Health Statistics, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2016-2022
Suggested Citation
National Center for Health Statistics. Emergency Department Visits in the United States, 2016-2022. Generated interactively: from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/dhcs/ed-visits/index.htm
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Emergency Room Visit: When to Go, What to Expect, Wait Times, and Cost
Knowing when and why to go for an emergency room visit can help you plan for care in the event of a medical emergency.
How much does it cost to go to an emergency room?
Emergency Room (ER) costs can vary greatly depending on what type of medical care you need. How much you pay for the visit depends on your health insurance plan. Most health plans may require you to pay something out-of-pocket for an emergency room visit. A visit to the ER may cost more if you have a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and you have not met your plan’s annual deductible. HDHP's typically offer lower monthly premiums and higher deductibles than traditional health plans. Your plan will start paying for eligible medical expenses once you’ve met the plan’s annual deductible. Here are some tips to pay less out of pocket .
When should I go to an emergency room?
Emergency rooms are often very busy because many people don’t know what type of care they need, so they immediately go to the ER when they are sick or hurt. You should make an emergency room visit for any condition that’s considered life-threatening.
Life-threatening conditions include, but are not limited to, things like a serious allergic reaction, trouble breathing or speaking, disorientation, a loss of consciousness, or any physical trauma.
If you need to be treated for problems that are considered non-life threatening, such as an earache, fever and flu symptoms, minor animal bites, mild asthma, or a mild urinary tract infection, consider seeing your doctor or visiting an urgent care center or convenience care clinic.
What is the cost of an emergency room visit without insurance?
Emergency room costs with or without health insurance can be very high. If you have health insurance, review your plan documents for details on the costs associated with your plan, including your plan deductible, coinsurance, and copay requirements.
If you don’t have insurance, you may be required to pay the full cost of your treatment, which can vary by facility and the type of treatment required. Always plan ahead for sudden sickness, injury, or other medical needs, so you know where to go and how much it could cost. If you need medical care, but it’s not life-threatening you may not have to go to the ER—there are other more affordable options:
- Urgent care center: Staffed by doctors, nurses, and other medical staff who can treat things like earaches, urinary tract infections, minor cuts, nausea, vomiting, etc. Wait times may be shorter and using an urgent care center could save you hundreds of dollars when compared to an ER.
- Convenience care clinic: Walk-in clinics are typically located in a pharmacy (CVS, Walgreens, etc.) or supermarket/retail store (Target, Walmart, etc.). These clinics are staffed with physician assistants and nurse practitioners who can provide care for minor cold, fever, flu, rashes and bruises, head lice, allergies, sinus/ear infections, urinary tract infections, even flu and shingles shots. No appointments are needed, wait times are usually minimal, and a convenience care clinic costs much less than an ER.
Plan ahead for when you need medical care. You may not need an emergency room visit and the bill that could come with it.
What are common emergency room wait times?
Emergency room wait times vary according to hospital and location. Patients in the ER are seen based on how serious their condition is. This means that the patients with life-threatening conditions are treated first, and those with non-life threatening conditions have to wait.
To help reduce ER wait times, health care facilities encourage you to plan ahead for care, so when you’re sick or hurt, you know if the ER is right for your medical condition.
An emergency room visit can take up time and money if your problem is not life-threatening. Consider other care options, such as an urgent care center, convenience care clinic, your doctor, or a virtual doctor visit (video chat/telehealth)—all of which could be faster and save you money out of your own pocket if the medical problem is non-life threatening.
If you have health insurance, be sure to check your plan documents to see what types of care options are eligible for coverage under your plan, including whether or not you need to stay in your plan’s network.
Is taking an ambulance to the emergency room free?
An ambulance ride is not free, but your insurance may cover some of the costs for the ride, as well as the emergency room visit. Check your plan benefits to see what out-of-pocket expenses you are responsible for when it comes to an ambulance ride and a visit to the ER.
Plan ahead for times you may need immediate medical care. Review the details of your health plan so you know the costs for an ER visit should you ever need it. Know when it’s best to go to the emergency room and when going somewhere else, like an urgent care center, convenience care clinic, your doctor, or even a virtual doctor visit (video chat/telehealth), is the right option that may save you time and money.
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The Costs of US Emergency Department Visits
The US population made 144.8 million emergency department (ED) visits in 2017, costing a total of $76.3 billion, estimated a recent statistical brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).
That year, 13.3% of the US population incurred an expense for an ED visit, and more than half of hospital inpatient stays originated with an ED visit. More than half of 2017 ED costs for the entire US, $39.5 billion, were incurred in large metropolitan areas. Aggregate ED visit costs and share of ED visit volume were highest for hospitals in the South. (ED charges were converted to costs using HCUP Cost-to-Charge Ratios based on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services hospital accounting reports.)
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Rubin R. The Costs of US Emergency Department Visits. JAMA. 2021;325(4):333. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.26936
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Why An ER Visit Can Cost So Much — Even For Those With Health Insurance
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Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Briefs [Internet].
Statistical brief #268 costs of emergency department visits in the united states, 2017.
Brian J. Moore , Ph.D. and Lan Liang , Ph.D.
Published: December 8, 2020 .
- Introduction
Emergency department (ED) visits have grown in the United States, with the rate of increase from 1996 to 2013 exceeding that for hospital inpatient care. 1 In 2017, 13.3 percent of the U.S. population incurred at least one expense for an ED visit. 2 Furthermore, more than 50 percent of hospital inpatient stays in 2017 included evidence of ED services prior to admission. 3 Trends in ED volume vary significantly by patient and hospital characteristics, but an examination of nationwide costs by these characteristics has not yet been explored in the literature. 4
This Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Brief presents statistics on the cost of ED visits in the United States using the 2017 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS). Total ED charges were converted to costs using HCUP Cost-to-Charge Ratios based on hospital accounting reports from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). ED visits include patients treated and released from the ED, as well as those admitted to the same hospital through the ED. Aggregate costs, average costs, and number of ED visits are presented by patient and hospital characteristics. Because of the large sample size of the NEDS data, small differences can be statistically significant. Thus, only percentage differences greater than or equal to 10 percent are discussed in the text.
- There were 144.8 million total emergency department (ED) visits in 2017 with aggregate ED costs totaling $76.3 billion (B).
- Aggregate ED costs were higher for females ($42.6B, 56 percent) than males ($33.7B, 44 percent); 55 percent of total ED visits were for females.
- Average cost per ED visit increased with age, from $290 for patients aged 17 years and younger to $690 for patients aged 65 years and older.
- As community-level income increased, shares of aggregate ED costs decreased and average cost per visit increased.
- In rural areas, one half of ED visit costs were for patients from the lowest income communities.
- The expected payer with the largest share of aggregate costs was private insurance in large metropolitan areas (31.4 percent of $39.5B) and Medicare in micropolitan (34.0 percent of $7.6B) and rural (37.3 percent of $5.5B) areas.
- Patients aged 18–44 years represented the largest share of aggregate ED costs in large metropolitan, small metropolitan, and micropolitan areas (36.4, 34.2, 32.5 percent, respectively). Patients aged 65 years and older represented the largest share of aggregate ED costs in rural areas (32.5 percent).
Aggregate costs for emergency department (ED) visits by patient sex and age group, 2017
Figure 1 presents aggregate ED visit costs by patient sex and age group in 2017 as well as number of ED visits. Estimates of aggregate cost use the product of the number of cases and the average estimated cost per visit to account for records with missing ED charge information. Aggregate cost decompositions among different descriptive statistics or using multiple levels of aggregation in a single computation could lead to slightly different total cost estimates due to the use of slightly different and more specific estimates of the missing information.
Aggregate ED visit costs by patient sex and age, 2017. Abbreviation: ED, emergency department Notes: Statistics for ED visits with missing or invalid patient characteristics are not presented. Patient age and sex were each missing for <0.1% of (more...)
- Aggregate ED visit costs in 2017 were higher overall for females than for males. Of the $76.3 billion in aggregate ED visit costs in 2017, females accounted for $42.6 billion (55.9 percent) and males accounted for $33.7 billion (44.1 percent). This cost differential was largely driven by a difference in ED visit volume, with females having a larger number of ED visits than males (80.2 vs. 64.6 million visits, or 55.4 vs. 44.6 percent of visits). Females had higher aggregate ED visit costs and more ED visits for all age groups except children. The discrepancy was highest for patients aged 18–44 years, with aggregate ED visit costs for females approximately 50 percent higher than costs for males ($15.9 vs. $10.7 billion), followed by patients aged 65 years and older, for which aggregate ED visit costs were approximately one-third higher for females than for males ($11.5 vs. $8.6 billion).
Costs of ED visits by patient characteristics, 2017
Table 1 presents the aggregate and average costs for ED visits, the number of ED visits, and the distributions of costs and visits, by select patient characteristics in 2017.
Aggregate costs, average costs, and number of ED visits by patient characteristics, 2017.
- In 2017, aggregate ED visit costs totaled $76.3 billion across 144.8 million ED visits, with an average cost per visit of $530. Aggregate ED visit costs totaled $76.3 billion in the United States in 2017, encompassing 144.8 million ED visits with an average cost per visit of $530. Routine discharge was the most frequent disposition from the ED, representing 80.8 percent of aggregate ED costs and a similar share of ED visits. Transfers represented 6.2 percent of aggregate ED costs but just 3.0 percent of ED visit volume because they had the highest average cost of any discharge disposition at $1,100 per ED visit. In contrast, ED visits resulting in an inpatient admission to the same hospital had the lowest average cost of any discharge disposition at $360 per ED visit and represented 9.4 percent of aggregate ED costs and 14.0 percent of ED visits.
- The share of aggregate ED visit costs attributed to patients aged 65 years and older was higher than the share of ED visits for this group, and the average cost per visit was highest among patients aged 65 years and older. Aggregate ED visit costs among patients aged 65 years and older totaled $20.2 billion (26.4 percent of the $76.3 billion total for the entire United States in 2017) despite just 29.2 million ED visits from patients in this age group (20.2 percent of the 144.8 million total). Conversely, the share of aggregate ED costs attributed to patients aged 17 years and younger was substantially lower than this group’s corresponding share of ED visits (10.3 percent of ED costs vs.18.5 percent of ED visits). This differential is due in part to the difference in average cost per visit, which increased with age. The average cost per visit among patients aged 65 years and older was more than twice as high as average costs among patients aged 17 years and younger ($690 vs. $290 per visit).
- Medicaid as the primary expected payer had the lowest average cost per ED visit, more than 50 percent lower than average costs for Medicare and one-third lower than for private insurance. Medicaid as the primary expected payer had an average cost per ED visit that was more than 50 percent lower than average costs per visit for Medicare ($420 vs. $660 per visit) and one-third lower than average costs for private insurance ($420 vs. $560 per visit). Due in part to these differences in average costs by expected payer, Medicare represented 30.1 percent of aggregate ED visit costs but 24.1 percent of total ED visits. In contrast, Medicaid represented 25.0 percent of ED costs but 31.5 percent of ED visits.
- As community-level income increased, the share of aggregate ED visit costs decreased and average cost per ED visit increased. The share of ED visit costs and ED visits decreased as community-level income increased. Patients residing in communities with the lowest income (quartile 1) represented roughly one-third of aggregate ED visit costs and ED visits (31.4 and 34.3 percent, respectively). Patients residing in quartiles 2 and 3 represented approximately one-fourth and one-fifth of aggregate ED visit costs and ED visits, respectively. Patients residing in communities with the highest income (quartile 4) represented less than one-fifth of aggregate ED costs and ED visits (18.1 and 16.0 percent, respectively). In contrast, average cost per ED visit increased as community-level income increased, ranging from $480 in communities with the lowest income (quartile 1) to $600 in communities with the highest income (quartile 4).
- The share of aggregate ED visit costs was highest among patients residing in large metropolitan areas. Aggregate ED visit costs for large metropolitan areas totaled $39.5 billion in 2017, more than half of the $76.3 billion in ED costs for the entire United States. The share of aggregate ED costs in large metropolitan areas was analogous to the overall distribution of ED visits in these areas: 51.8 percent of aggregate ED costs and 50.4 percent of ED visits.
Distribution of aggregate ED visit costs for location of patient residence by patient characteristics, 2017
Figures 2 – 4 present the distribution of aggregate costs for ED visits based on the location of the patient’s residence by age ( Figure 2 ), community-level income ( Figure 3 ), and primary expected payer ( Figure 4 ).
Aggregate ED visit costs by age and patient location, 2017. Abbreviations: B, billion; ED, emergency department; M, million Notes: Statistics for ED visits with missing or invalid patient characteristics are not presented. Patient age and patient location (more...)
Aggregate ED visit costs by primary expected payer and patient location, 2017. Abbreviations: B, billion; ED, emergency department; M, million Notes: Statistics for ED visits with missing or invalid patient characteristics are not presented. Expected (more...)
Aggregate ED visit costs by community-level income and location of patient’s residence, 2017. Abbreviations: B, billion; ED, emergency department; M, million Notes: Statistics for ED visits with missing or invalid patient characteristics are not (more...)
Figure 2 presents the distribution of aggregate costs for ED visits by patient age based on the location of the patient’s residence in 2017.
- Patients aged 18–44 years represented the largest share of aggregate ED visit costs in all locations except rural areas where patients aged 65 years and older represented the largest share. Compared with other age groups, patients aged 18–44 years represented the largest share of aggregate ED visit costs in large metropolitan areas in 2017 (36.4 percent). The share of ED costs attributed to patients aged 18–44 years also was larger than for other age groups in small metropolitan and micropolitan areas (34.2 and 32.5 percent, respectively). Overall, the share of ED costs attributed to patients aged 18–44 years decreased as urbanization decreased, from 36.4 percent in large metropolitan areas to 29.8 percent in rural areas. In rural areas, patients aged 65 years and older accounted for the largest share of aggregate ED visit costs (32.5 percent) compared with other age groups. The share of ED costs attributed to patients aged 65 years and older increased as urbanization decreased, from 24.7 percent in large metropolitan areas to 32.5 percent in rural areas. The share of aggregate ED visit costs attributed to patients aged 45–64 years and those aged 17 years and younger were similar across all patient locations (approximately 28 and 10 percent, respectively).
Figure 3 presents the distribution of aggregate costs for ED visits by quartile of community-level household income in the patient’s ZIP Code based on the location of the patient’s residence in 2017.
- In large metropolitan areas, patients residing in communities with the highest and lowest incomes represented the largest shares of aggregate ED visit costs. For other locations, patients in communities with lower incomes represented the largest share of ED costs. Patients residing in communities with the highest and lowest incomes (quartiles 4 and 1) accounted for 28.1 and 26.6 percent, respectively, of the $39.5 billion in aggregate ED visit costs in large metropolitan areas in 2017. In contrast, patients residing in communities with the two lowest income quartiles represented the largest share of ED costs for other patient locations (small metropolitan, micropolitan, and rural).
- As urbanization decreased, the share of aggregate ED visit costs for patients in the lowest income quartile increased and the share for those in the highest income quartile decreased. The share of aggregate ED visit costs attributed to patients residing in communities in the lowest income quartile (quartile 1) increased as urbanization decreased, from 26.6 percent in large metropolitan areas to 48.8 percent in rural areas. In contrast, the share of ED visit costs attributed to patients residing in communities in the highest income quartile (quartile 4) decreased as urbanization decreased, from 28.1 percent in large metropolitan areas to 1.2 percent in rural areas.
Figure 4 presents the distribution of aggregate costs for ED visits by primary expected payer based on the location of the patient’s residence in 2017.
- Private insurance as the primary expected payer accounted for the largest share of aggregate ED visit costs among patients living in large metropolitan areas. Medicare represented the largest share of ED costs in micropolitan and rural areas. Compared with other primary expected payers, private insurance represented the largest share of aggregate ED visit costs among those living in large metropolitan areas in 2017 (31.4 percent). The share of ED costs attributed to private insurance decreased as urbanization decreased, from 31.4 percent in large metropolitan areas to 27.9 percent in rural areas. More than one-third of ED visit costs were attributed to Medicare as the primary expected payer in micropolitan and rural areas. The share of ED costs attributed to Medicare increased as urbanization decreased, from 28.0 percent in large metropolitan areas to 37.3 percent in rural areas.
Costs of ED visits by hospital characteristics, 2017
Table 2 presents the aggregate and average costs for ED visits, the number of ED visits, and the distributions of costs and visits, by select hospital characteristics in 2017.
Aggregate costs, average costs, and number of ED visits by hospital characteristics, 2017.
- Aggregate ED visit costs were highest for hospitals located in the South in 2017. Aggregate ED visit costs in the South were $27.5 billion in 2017 (36.1 percent of the total $76.3 billion for the United States). The share of ED visit volume for the South was even larger (40.0 percent of the 144.8 million total visits). The distribution of aggregate ED visit costs across other hospital characteristics largely followed the pattern of the number of ED visits. Aggregate ED costs were highest in private, nonprofit hospitals; teaching hospitals; and hospitals not designated as a trauma center (72.0, 64.1, and 52.5 percent of ED costs, respectively). ED visits at private, for-profit hospitals had lower average costs per visit than did visits at either private, nonprofit or public hospitals ($420 vs. $540 and $550 per visit).
- About Statistical Briefs
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Briefs provide basic descriptive statistics on a variety of topics using HCUP administrative healthcare data. Topics include hospital inpatient, ambulatory surgery, and emergency department use and costs, quality of care, access to care, medical conditions, procedures, and patient populations, among other topics. The reports are intended to generate hypotheses that can be further explored in other research; the reports are not designed to answer in-depth research questions using multivariate methods.
- Data Source
The estimates in this Statistical Brief are based upon data from the HCUP 2017 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS).
- Definitions
Types of hospitals included in the HCUP Nationwide Emergency Department Sample
The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) is based on emergency department (ED) data from community acute care hospitals, which are defined as short-term, non-Federal, general, and other specialty hospitals available to the public. Included among community hospitals are pediatric institutions and hospitals that are part of academic medical centers. Excluded are long-term care facilities such as rehabilitation, psychiatric, and alcoholism and chemical dependency hospitals. Hospitals included in the NEDS have EDs, and no more than 90 percent of their ED visits result in admission.
Unit of analysis
The unit of analysis is the ED visit, not a person or patient. This means that a person who is seen in the ED multiple times in 1 year will be counted each time as a separate visit in the ED.
Costs and charges
Total ED charges were converted to costs using HCUP Cost-to-Charge Ratios based on hospital accounting reports from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). a Costs reflect the actual expenses incurred in the production of hospital services, such as wages, supplies, and utility costs; charges represent the amount a hospital billed for the case. For each hospital, a cost-to-charge ratio constructed specifically for the hospital ED is used. Hospital charges reflect the amount the hospital billed for the entire ED visit and do not include professional (physician) fees.
Total charges were not available on all NEDS records. About 13 percent of all ED visits (weighted) in the 2017 NEDS were missing information about ED charges, and therefore, ED cost could not be estimated. For ED visits that resulted in admission, 24 percent of records were missing ED charges. For ED visits that did not result in admission, 11 percent of records were missing ED charges. The missing information was concentrated in the West (59 percent of records missing ED charges). For this Statistical Brief, the methodology used for aggregate cost estimation was analogous to what is recommended for the estimation of aggregate charges in the Introduction to the HCUP NEDS documentation. b Aggregate costs were estimated as the product of number of visits and average cost per visit in each reporting category. If a stay was missing total charges, average cost was imputed using the average cost for other stays with the same combination of payer characteristics. Therefore, a comparison of aggregate cost estimates across different tables, figures, or characteristics may result in slight discrepancies.
How HCUP estimates of costs differ from National Health Expenditure Accounts
There are a number of differences between the costs cited in this Statistical Brief and spending as measured in the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA), which are produced annually by CMS. c The largest source of difference comes from the HCUP coverage of ED treatment only in contrast to the NHEA inclusion of inpatient and other outpatient costs associated with other hospital-based outpatient clinics and departments as well. The outpatient portion of hospitals’ activities has been growing steadily and may exceed half of all hospital revenue in recent years. On the basis of the American Hospital Association Annual Survey, 2017 outpatient gross revenues (or charges) were about 49 percent of total hospital gross revenues. d
Smaller sources of differences come from the inclusion in the NHEA of hospitals that are excluded from HCUP. These include Federal hospitals (Department of Defense, Veterans Administration, Indian Health Services, and Department of Justice [prison] hospitals) as well as psychiatric, substance abuse, and long-term care hospitals. A third source of difference lies in the HCUP reliance on billed charges from hospitals to payers, adjusted to provide estimates of costs using hospital-wide cost-to-charge ratios, in contrast to the NHEA measurement of spending or revenue. HCUP costs estimate the amount of money required to produce hospital services, including expenses for wages, salaries, and benefits paid to staff as well as utilities, maintenance, and other similar expenses required to run a hospital. NHEA spending or revenue measures the amount of income received by the hospital for treatment and other services provided, including payments by insurers, patients, or government programs. The difference between revenues and costs includes profit for for-profit hospitals or surpluses for nonprofit hospitals.
Location of patients’ residence
Place of residence is based on the urban-rural classification scheme for U.S. counties developed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and based on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) definition of a metropolitan service area as including a city and a population of at least 50,000 residents. For this Statistical Brief, we collapsed the NCHS categories into four groups according to the following:
Large Metropolitan
- Large Central Metropolitan: Counties in a metropolitan area with 1 million or more residents that satisfy at least one of the following criteria: (1) containing the entire population of the largest principal city of the metropolitan statistical area (MSA), (2) having their entire population contained within the largest principal city of the MSA, or (3) containing at least 250,000 residents of any principal city in the MSA
- Large Fringe Metropolitan: Counties in a metropolitan area with 1 million or more residents that do not qualify as large central metropolitan counties
Small Metropolitan
- Medium Metropolitan: Counties in a metropolitan area of 250,000–999,999 residents
- Small Metropolitan: Counties in a metropolitan area of 50,000–249,999 residents
Micropolitan:
- Micropolitan: Counties in a nonmetropolitan area of 10,000–49,999 residents
- Noncore: Counties in a nonmetropolitan and nonmicropolitan area
Community-level income
Community-level income is based on the median household income of the patient’s ZIP Code of residence. Quartiles are defined so that the total U.S. population is evenly distributed. Cut-offs for the quartiles are determined annually using ZIP Code demographic data obtained from Claritas, a vendor that produces population estimates and projections based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau. e The value ranges for the income quartiles vary by year. The income quartile is missing for patients who are homeless or foreign.
Expected payer
- Medicare: includes fee-for-service and managed care Medicare
- Medicaid: includes fee-for-service and managed care Medicaid
- Private insurance: includes commercial nongovernmental payers, regardless of the type of plan (e.g., private health maintenance organizations [HMOs], preferred provider organizations [PPOs])
- Self-pay/No charge: includes self-pay, no charge, charity, and no expected payment
- Other payers: includes other Federal and local government programs (e.g., TRICARE, CHAMPVA, Indian Health Service, Black Lung, Title V) and Workers’ Compensation
ED visits that were expected to be billed to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) are included under Medicaid.
- Northeast: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
- Midwest: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas
- South: Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas
- West: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, and Hawaii
Discharge status
Discharge status reflects the disposition of the patient at discharge from the ED and includes the following categories reported in this Statistical Brief: routine (to home); admitted as an inpatient to the same hospital; transfers (transfer to another short-term hospital; other transfers including skilled nursing facility, intermediate care, and another type of facility such as a nursing home); and all other dispositions (home healthcare; against medical advice [AMA]; died in the ED; or destination unknown).
Hospital characteristics
Data on hospital ownership and status as a teaching hospital was obtained from the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey of Hospitals. Hospital ownership/control includes categories for government nonfederal (public), private not-for-profit (voluntary), and private investor-owned (proprietary). Teaching hospital is defined as having a residency program approved by the American Medical Association, being a member of the Council of Teaching Hospitals, or having a ratio of full-time equivalent interns and residents to beds of 0.25 or higher.
Hospital trauma level
- Level I centers have comprehensive resources, are able to care for the most severely injured, and provide leadership in education and research.
- Level II centers have comprehensive resources and are able to care for the most severely injured, but do not provide leadership in education and research.
- Level III centers provide prompt assessment and resuscitation, emergency surgery, and, if needed, transfer to a level I or II center.
- Level IV/V centers provide trauma support in remote areas in which no higher level of care is available. These centers resuscitate and stabilize patients and arrange transfer to an appropriate trauma facility.
For this Statistical Brief, trauma hospitals were defined as those classified by the ASC/COT as a level I, II, or III trauma center. This is consistent with the classification of trauma centers used in the NEDS. The ACS/COT has a program that verifies hospitals as trauma level I, II, or III. h It is important to note that although all level I, II, and III trauma centers offer a high level of trauma care, there may be differences in the specific services and resources offered by hospitals of different levels. Trauma levels IV and V are designated at the State level (and not by ACS/COT) with varying criteria applied across States.
The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP, pronounced "H-Cup") is a family of healthcare databases and related software tools and products developed through a Federal-State-Industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). HCUP databases bring together the data collection efforts of State data organizations, hospital associations, and private data organizations (HCUP Partners) and the Federal government to create a national information resource of encounter-level healthcare data. HCUP includes the largest collection of longitudinal hospital care data in the United States, with all-payer, encounter-level information beginning in 1988. These databases enable research on a broad range of health policy issues, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to healthcare programs, and outcomes of treatments at the national, State, and local market levels.
- Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
- Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Services Association
- Arizona Department of Health Services
- Arkansas Department of Health
- California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development
- Colorado Hospital Association
- Connecticut Hospital Association
- Delaware Division of Public Health
- District of Columbia Hospital Association
- Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
- Georgia Hospital Association
- Hawaii Laulima Data Alliance
- Hawaii University of Hawai’i at Hilo
- Illinois Department of Public Health
- Indiana Hospital Association
- Iowa Hospital Association
- Kansas Hospital Association
- Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
- Louisiana Department of Health
- Maine Health Data Organization
- Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission
- Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis
- Michigan Health & Hospital Association
- Minnesota Hospital Association
- Mississippi State Department of Health
- Missouri Hospital Industry Data Institute
- Montana Hospital Association
- Nebraska Hospital Association Services
- Nevada Department of Health and Human
- New Hampshire Department of Health & Human
- New Jersey Department of Health
- New Mexico Department of Health
- New York State Department of Health
- North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
- North Dakota (data provided by the Minnesota Hospital Association)
- Ohio Hospital Association
- Oklahoma State Department of Health
- Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems
- Oregon Office of Health Analytics
- Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council
- Rhode Island Department of Health
- South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office
- South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations
- Tennessee Hospital Association
- Texas Department of State Health Services
- Utah Department of Health
- Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems
- Virginia Health Information
- Washington State Department of Health
- West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, West Virginia Health Care Authority
- Wisconsin Department of Health Services
- Wyoming Hospital Association
- About the NEDS
The HCUP Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) is a unique and powerful database that yields national estimates of emergency department (ED) visits. The NEDS was constructed using records from both the HCUP State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) and the State Inpatient Databases (SID). The SEDD capture information on ED visits that do not result in an admission (i.e., patients who were treated in the ED and then released from the ED, or patients who were transferred to another hospital); the SID contain information on patients initially seen in the ED and then admitted to the same hospital. The NEDS was created to enable analyses of ED utilization patterns and support public health professionals, administrators, policymakers, and clinicians in their decision making regarding this critical source of care. The NEDS is produced annually beginning in 2006. Over time, the sampling frame for the NEDS has changed; thus, the number of States contributing to the NEDS varies from year to year. The NEDS is intended for national estimates only; no State-level estimates can be produced. The unweighted sample size for the 2017 NEDS is 33,506,645 (weighted, this represents 144,814,803 ED visits).
- For More Information
For other information on emergency department visits, refer to the HCUP Statistical Briefs located at www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb_ed.jsp .
- HCUP Fast Stats at www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/faststats/landing.jsp for easy access to the latest HCUP-based statistics for healthcare information topics
- HCUPnet, HCUP’s interactive query system, at www.hcupnet.ahrq.gov/
For more information about HCUP, visit www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/ .
For a detailed description of HCUP and more information on the design of the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS), please refer to the following database documentation:
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Overview of the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS). Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Updated December 2019. www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/nedsoverview.jsp . Accessed February 3, 2020.
- Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Nils Nordstrand of IBM Watson Health.
The HCUP Cost-to-Charge Ratios (CCRs) for NEDS Files were not publicly available at the time of publication, so an internal version was used in this Statistical Brief.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. HCUP Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) Database Documentation. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Updated April 27, 2020. www .hcup-us.ahrq.gov /db/nation/neds/nedsdbdocumentation.jsp . Accessed October 27, 2020.
For additional information about the NHEA, see Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). National Health Expenditure Data. CMS website. Updated December 17, 2019. www .cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems /Statistics-Trends-and-Reports /NationalHealthExpendData/index .html?redirect= /NationalHealthExpendData/ . Accessed February 3, 2020.
American Hospital Association. TrendWatch Chartbook, 2019. Table 4.2. Distribution of Inpatient vs. Outpatient Revenues, 1995–2017. www .aha.org/system/files /media/file/2019 /11/TrendwatchChartbook-2019-Appendices .pdf . Accessed March 19, 2020.
Claritas. Claritas Demographic Profile by ZIP Code. https://claritas360.claritas.com/mybestsegments/. Accessed February 3, 2020.
American Trauma Society. Trauma Information Exchange Program (TIEP). www .amtrauma.org/page/TIEP . Accessed June 11, 2020.
MacKenzie EJ, Hoyt DB, Sacra JC, Jurkovich GJ, Carlini AR, Teitelbaum SD, et al. National inventory of hospital trauma centers. JAMA. 2003;289(12):1515–22. [ PubMed : 12672768 ]
American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, Verification, Review, and Consultation Program for Hospitals. Additional details are available at www .facs.org/quality-programs/trauma/vrc . Accessed July 17, 2020.
Moore BJ (IBM Watson Health), Liang L (AHRQ). Costs of Emergency Department Visits in the United States, 2017. HCUP Statistical Brief #268. December 2020. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb268-ED-Costs-2017.pdf .
- Cite this Page Moore BJ, Liang L. Costs of Emergency Department Visits in the United States, 2017. 2020 Dec 8. In: Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Briefs [Internet]. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2006 Feb-. Statistical Brief #268.
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In this Page
- Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
- Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS)
- Kids' Inpatient Database (KID)
- Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS)
- State Inpatient Databases (SID)
- State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD)
- State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD)
- HCUP Overview
- HCUP Fact Sheet
- HCUP Partners
- HCUP User Support
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Emergency department visits exceed affordability threshold for many consumers with private insurance
By Hope Schwartz Twitter , Matthew Rae Twitter , Gary Claxton , Dustin Cotliar, Krutika Amin , and Cynthia Cox Twitter KFF
December 16, 2022
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Introduction
The high cost of emergency care may impact patients’ ability to afford treatment , with almost half of US adults reporting they have delayed care due to costs. Almost 1 in 10 Americans have medical debt , and about half of American households do not have the liquid assets to afford an average employer sponsored plan deductible. More than one third of US adults are unable to afford a $400 medical expense without borrowing.
Costs of medical emergencies present an additional financial burden on top of already costly health insurance premiums ranging $1,327 for single coverage and $6,106 for family coverage, on average, for workers with employer sponsored insurance. Variation in emergency department billing may make it difficult to predict the cost of an emergency department visit and subsequent financial liability. Recently, the No Surprises Act legislation aimed to curb unexpected emergency medical costs by prohibiting out-of-network billing for emergency services.
In this analysis, we use 2019 insurance claims data from the Merative MarketScan Commercial Database, which captures privately insured individuals with large employer health plans. We look at the total and out-of-pocket costs of emergency department visits for this group, overall and by diagnosis and severity level. We also look at which services contribute most to the costs of emergency department visits and examine regional variation in emergency department costs. Finally, we look at the demographic profile of consumers who visited the emergency department and the relationship between emergency department spending and annual spending for enrollees.
We find that enrollees spend $646 out-of-pocket, on average, for an emergency department visit. Enrollees with high annual health spending were more likely to visit the emergency department; the majority of enrollees in the top 10% of annual health care spending had at least one emergency department visit during the year. The most expensive components of most emergency department visits include evaluation and management charges, imaging, and laboratory studies, and facility fees make up 80% of the cost of visits. Cost varies by disease, visit complexity, and geographic region.
Large employer plan enrollees’ emergency department visits cost $2,453, on average, with enrollees responsible for $646 in out-of-pocket costs
On average, enrollees in large employer health plans who have an emergency department visit spend $646 out-of-pocket on the visit. There is significant variation in emergency department spending, with 25% of visits costing over $907 out-of-pocket and another quarter costing less than $128 out-of-pocket. These out-of-pocket costs for a single emergency department visit may be more than some people with private insurance can afford and, in some cases, could entirely deplete a consumer’s savings. For example, about 1-in-5 people (21%) with private insurance living in single-person households have less than $1,000 in liquid assets.
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These amounts only include out-of-pocket spending required by the insurer. Before the No Surprises Act went into effect in January 2022, privately insured patients who visited the emergency department frequently had out-of-network claims on their visit, putting them at risk of providers sending them surprise balance bills. The No Surprises Act now prohibits most surprise out-of-network billing, but does not apply to ground ambulances . Any balance bill that a patient received from a provider would not appear in claims data and therefore would have been in addition to the out-of-pocket amounts shown here.
In total, enrollees and insurers paid $2,453, on average, per visit, with one quarter of visits costing $970 or less and another quarter costing $3,043 or more. All the costs described in this analysis are for the emergency department visits only, including professional services and facility fees, and do not include any spending on subsequent hospitalizations.
Facility fees contribute significantly more than professional fees to total visit cost
Emergency department bills are categorized as facility fees or professional fees. Professional fees are for services provided by clinicians, and facility fees include bills for services rendered using equipment owned by the facility, including laboratory or imaging studies. These fees are considered “overhead” for emergency departments and help facilities maintain appropriate staffing levels and technical resources. Evaluation and management charges also have a facility fee component for the equipment, staffing, and administrative resources used by the physician in their management. We find that facility fees make up 80% of total visit cost.
Evaluation and management charges make up the largest share of costs
Including both the professional fee and facility fee components of charges, the largest contributor to spending on a typical emergency department visit is the evaluation and management charge, which accounts for almost half (44%) of average visit costs. Evaluation and management charges are bills for the assessment of a patient that are not related to specific procedures or treatments provided; these services cost over $1,100 per visit, on average.
Imaging charges, including radiologist interpretation fees, make up an additional 19% of the average emergency department visit charge and cost $483, on average. The highest cost routinely performed imaging services include x-rays of the chest and CT scans of the head, chest, abdomen, and pelvis. Over half of visits (55%) include a charge for imaging services. About half of patients (49%) are charged for laboratory studies, including blood tests, which cost $230 on average. Other high cost but less common charges include surgical charges for patients with appendicitis and other conditions requiring surgery without inpatient admission, as well as ambulance charges for transport.
Heart attacks and appendicitis among the most expensive common conditions treated in the emergency department
Costs of emergency department visits depend on diagnosis. We selected nine common reasons to visit the emergency department that vary in complexity of management. More severe conditions, or those with more intervention required, are the most expensive. Of the nine specific diagnoses that we evaluated, the lower-cost diagnoses were those that generally do not require imaging or extensive treatment in the emergency department. These included upper respiratory tract infections ($1,535 total, $523 out-of-pocket), skin and soft tissue infections ($2,005 total, $572 out-of-pocket), and urinary tract infections ($2,726 total, $683 out-of-pocket). While these diagnoses can occasionally require admission to the hospital, in otherwise healthy adults they are typically evaluated with basic laboratory studies and discharged with prescriptions.
The most expensive emergency department diagnosis among those we examined is appendicitis, which, on average, costs $9,535 ($1,717 out-of-pocket) per visit. Appendicitis is almost two times as expensive as the next most expensive diagnosis we looked at, heart attack. 11% of enrollees with a diagnosis of appendicitis had surgical charges associated with their emergency department visit. Surgical costs may be included in emergency department outpatient billing because these patients are often discharged after surgery without being admitted to the hospital. In contrast, other emergency department visits requiring surgery are often admitted to the hospital and have surgical charges during their inpatient visit. Enrollees who had surgery had more expensive visits by over $2,000 compared to those who did not; however even without surgery, visits for appendicitis were almost four times as expensive as the average emergency department visit (and more than twice as expensive out-of-pocket).
Enrollees with emergency department visits have variable annual spending depending on diagnosis
In addition to the costs of the emergency department visit itself, enrollees who visit the emergency department at least once during the year have higher annual health care spending. Annual spending includes the cost of all claims for each patient in 2019, either before or after their emergency department visit. Though appendicitis was the most expensive emergency department visit among the diagnoses we analyzed, enrollees with appendicitis in 2019 incurred an average of $24,333 in additional health care spending, which was comparable to lower cost diagnoses. Enrollees with heart attacks had at least two times more annual spending than any other diagnosis ($52,993), while enrollees with upper respiratory tract infections had the lowest annual spending ($13,727).
These differences in annual costs may reflect spending both directly related and unrelated to the emergency department visit. For example, enrollees with heart attack emergency department visits may have high annual spending because of follow-up, medications, or hospitalizations after their heart attacks. However, their high annual spending may also reflect more comorbidities and higher healthcare utilization at baseline. In contrast, appendicitis, the most expensive emergency department visit, is correlated with relatively lower annual costs; unlike heart attacks, appendicitis often occurs in younger, healthier people and requires comparatively little additional post-surgical follow-up or treatment.
The most complex emergency visits are more than 6 times as expensive as the least expensive visits, but insurers pay an increasing share of the visit as complexity increases
Emergency department visits are coded by complexity during the billing process, from 1 (least complex) to 5 (most complex). Each evaluation and management charge is associated with a procedure code ranging from level 1 to level 5 (99281 to 99285), which are generated by hospital coding professionals based on the physicians’ medical note. Criteria are defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ( CMS ) and based on the complexity of documentation and medical decision making. Patients with level 1 complexity codes require straightforward medical decision making, with self-limited or minor presenting problems, such as rashes or medication refills. Patients with level 5 codes require high complexity medical decision making and present with life- or limb-threatening conditions, such as severe infections or cardiac arrests.
The lowest complexity visits cost $592 on average, with enrollees responsible for $205, or about one-third of the total visit cost. As visits increase in complexity, both out-of-pocket costs and costs covered by insurance increase. For the highest complexity visits, the health plan covers $3,015 on average, or eight times the cost of the lowest complexity visits. On average, patients pay $840 out-of-pocket for the highest complexity visits, which is four times their out-of-pocket costs for the lowest complexity visits.
Higher complexity visits are more expensive for multiple reasons. In general, evaluation and management charges are higher cost for more complex patients. Also, patients with more complex medical conditions generally receive more diagnostic tests, medication, and other treatment, which increases the cost of the visit. For the lowest complexity visits, evaluation and management charges account for almost half (47%) of the overall visit cost. In contrast, evaluation and management charges for the highest complexity visits account for about one-fourth (27%) of the total visit cost, with additional services including tests and treatment making up a larger share of the cost.
Emergency department costs vary by geographic region
We analyzed the top 20 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) by population, where data are available. Overall, the San Diego, CA area had the most expensive average ED visits ($3,761 on average). San Diego ED visits were more than twice as expensive as Baltimore, MD, the least expensive MSA in our analysis ($1,645 on average). Expensive MSAs were geographically distributed in all regions of the country including the South, West, Northeast, and Midwest. Within each MSA, there was significant variation in visit costa. For example, 25% of visits in Oakland, CA cost less than $1,236 on average, while 25% cost more than $4,436 on average.
Some variation may be based on the distribution of diagnoses in each area, with more serious or complex diagnoses leading to higher cost visits. For example, if a metro area sees higher than average volume of appendicitis, heart attacks, or other high-cost diagnoses, that would drive up regional emergency department costs.
For common diagnoses, Texas and Florida MSAs are among the most expensive
If we examine costs for specific diagnoses, we can minimize some of this variation in reasons for visits and gain a better understanding of how prices and service intensity affect the rankings. We selected two common, moderate-cost reasons for emergency department visits: low back pain and lower respiratory infections. While these visits can range in complexity and treatment required, they usually do not require hospital admission or high-cost treatment. Low back pain includes patients who present with the symptom of low back pain, regardless of diagnosis. Lower respiratory tract infection includes infectious causes of pneumonia and bronchitis. This analysis was limited to MSAs in which there were >500 cases of each diagnosis in 2019.
Visit costs for both diagnoses in Dallas, TX, Houston, TX, Fort Worth, TX, and Orlando, FL are in the top five most expensive MSAs with >500 cases. For low back pain visits, the Orlando, FL, Fort Worth, TX, Dallas, TX, and Houston, TX areas are each more than twice as expensive as the Warren, MI and Detroit, MI areas, on average. This trend is similar for lower respiratory tract infections. Within MSAs, variation in costs exist for both diagnoses. For example, for low back pain visits, there is more than a $3,000 difference between the least expensive and most expensive quarter of visits in Fort Worth, TX, Dallas, TX, and Houston, TX.
12% of large employer group enrollees went to the emergency department in 2019
We find that 12% of large group enrollees under age 65 had at least one emergency department visit in 2019, and of enrollees with emergency department visits, 80% had only one visit. 20% had more than one visit, and 7% had more than two visits. Emergency department visits were associated with higher annual health care spending, with almost half of enrollees in the top 25% of annual spending having at least one emergency department visit during the year.
We find that the average emergency department visit exceeds the threshold that some consumers can pay without borrowing, and even one emergency department visit in a year may create financial hardship for enrollees in large employer plans. For example, one quarter of emergency department visits for large employer enrollees cost over $907 out-of-pocket. Meanwhile, about 1-in-5 people with private insurance do not have $1,000 in liquid assets, and almost half of US adults report that they would not be able to pay a $500 medical bill without going into debt. Emergency department visits range significantly in cost depending on diagnosis, visit complexity, and geographic area. These variations may present challenges for consumers trying to predict the cost of their emergency department visit prior to going to the emergency department.
Several factors contribute to the variability of emergency department charges. First, unlike other forms of outpatient care including primary care or urgent care visits, emergency departments charge facility fees to offset the cost of keeping emergency departments open and staffed 24/7. These fees vary widely and are increasing at a faster rate than overall health care spending. The facility component represented 80% of total emergency department spending in our analysis. Many hospitals and health care providers consider these costs necessary given their mandate to provide emergency triage and treatment to allcomers. A second contributor to variation is that services are often billed at different complexity levels, and visits that are billed as more complex are more expensive . In some cases, even similar services are billed at different prices by different facilities. Notably, surprise out-of-network medical bills from emergency departments have contributed to high emergency costs for consumers, though the cost of any balance bills would be outside the scope of our claims data. The implementation of the No Surprises Act in January 2022 will generally curb surprise medical billing for emergency care.
As seen in non-emergency spending , we find that emergency department costs vary by geographic area. Among the most expensive MSAs in our analysis were MSAs located in Texas, Florida, California, Colorado, and New York. Interestingly, the most expensive regions for ED care do not align with the most expensive regions for overall health care spending. These comparisons suggest that our findings are not solely related to overall high health care prices in these areas and may reflect other factors including the age and medical complexity of the population or differences in local norms and practice patterns. State-level emergency department regulation may also play a role—states with higher numbers of freestanding , non-hospital affiliated emergency departments (which are associated with higher spending on emergency care) were among the most costly in our analysis.
The financial implications of visiting the emergency department vary widely. Not all the variation in total charges is reflected in out-of-pocket costs, since differences in cost by complexity level are smaller after insurance covers its portion of the bill. However, the most complex emergency department visits have four times higher out-of-pocket costs than the least complex visits. Even the least complex visits, some of which could be treated by a primary care office or urgent care center, cost an average of $205 out-of-pocket ($592 total). Given facility fees and relatively high evaluation and management charges in emergency departments, insurers and patients are paying more when receiving care for these conditions at emergency departments than they would using primary or urgent care. These lower complexity visits may represent a substantial avoidable cost to patients and the health care system at large.
High health care costs are of foremost concern for US adults, leading people to skip recommended medical treatment or delay necessary care. Even in the era of new price transparency regulation , which aims to improve consumer access to prices for elective care, emergency department consumers often do not know what testing or treatment they will need, so it is difficult to assess the costs of a visit upfront. Further, in an emergency situation, patients may not be able to choose their provider or facility if they are brought in by ambulance or otherwise unable to direct their care. Lastly, lack of availability and standardization in data may make it difficult for patients to use price transparency data in real time to make decisions about accepting tests and treatment in an emergency. The high and variable cost of emergency department visits represents an opportunity for future policy changes to protect consumers from unaffordable medical bills.
This analysis is based on data from the Merative MarketScan Commercial Database, which contains claims information provided by a sample of large employer plans. Enrollees in MarketScan claims data were included if they were enrolled for 12 months. This analysis used claims for almost 14 million people representing about 17% of the 85 million people in large group market plans (employers with a thousand or more workers) from 2004-2019. To make MarketScan data representative of large group plans, weights were applied to match counts in the Current Population Survey for enrollees at firms of a thousand or more workers by sex, age, state, and whether the enrollee was a policy holder or dependent.
Emergency department visits were flagged if an enrollee had an emergency department evaluation and management claim in the emergency department or the hospital on a given day. If an enrollee had either an emergency evaluation and management claim or another claim originating in the emergency department on the day prior to or after the flagged day, we added the previous and or following day’s outpatient spending to the visit cost. This was to capture all emergency department services for visits that may have spanned overnight or multiple days. Over half (53%) of the spending in this analysis occurred in the emergency department, with another 42% occurring in the hospital, which may occur when a patient receives a test or procedure in a location outside the emergency department during their visit.
Claims were included if they were above $100 and below the 99.5 th percentile of cost. Selected conditions were generated from a literature review of common emergency department diagnoses and defined using ICD10 codes. Enrollees were considered to have a certain diagnosis if the relevant ICD10 code appeared in the “Diagnosis 1” column in one or more claims on an emergency department visit day. While emergency department claims have up to four diagnoses, diagnoses listed in 2-4 were not used to identify relevant conditions because these diagnoses were most often incidentally found rather than related to the reason for presenting to the emergency department. For specific diagnosis definitions: Heart attack includes acute STEMI and NSTEMI, and excludes complications from prior heart attacks or angina; UTI includes acute cystitis, UTI and pyelonephritis; Kidney stone includes renal calculus in any location and renal colic; Lower respiratory infection includes pneumonia and bronchitis. Surgical charges for acute appendicitis include both open and laparoscopic surgical charges. Annual spending was defined as the total spending for each enrollee in the year 2019, which could occur before and/or after their emergency department visit depending on the time of year of the emergency department visit.
This analysis has some limitations. First, there is a chance that we could incorrectly include non-emergency outpatient care (such as a next-day, follow up primary care appointment) in our estimate of emergency department visit costs. Secondly, when accounting for annual spending, we do not control for health status prior to the emergency department visit. Therefore, the increase in annual health spending for patients who visit the emergency department for certain conditions may be because these patients are sicker and higher healthcare utilizers at baseline, rather than specific follow-up costs incurred for the emergency department visit itself. For selecting relevant diagnoses, we only include claims in which a particular diagnosis occurs as the primary diagnosis. Third, the MarketScan database includes only charges incurred under the enrollees’ plan and do not include balance billing to enrollees which may have occurred. Lastly, our findings only represent enrollees in large group employer sponsored plans and may not be generalizable to other groups.
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Why Did My Emergency Room Visit Cost So Much?
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Emergency room visits are notoriously expensive. Just a few hours in the ER can cost you thousands of dollars, with or without insurance.
But how is your ER visit cost calculated, and how can you tell whether your hospital bill is correct?
We scored some insider tips from Goodbill medical coding expert Christine Fries, who has analyzed thousands of ER hospital bills for accuracy. Here are answers to frequently asked questions we get from Goodbill customers about how to understand and vet ER visit costs.
Why did I get 2 bills for my ER visit?
Patients are usually surprised when their first ER hospital bill is quickly followed by a separate hospital bill with similar-sounding charges but different amounts. This is normal and a byproduct of how hospitals bill patients for the services rendered at the hospital, Fries says.
The institutional bill, also known as the facility bill, charges you for the procedures, tests, and administrative costs from the hospital.
The professional bill, also known as the physician bill, charges you for the work and time of the physician who treated you. This generally includes services from doctors, anesthesiologists, or specialists who are affiliated with the hospital but aren’t employed by the hospital.
Expect to get two bills from your ER visit — one for facility charges, and the other for professional or physician charges.
For more information on the different types of hospital bills, see our itemized bill guide . Goodbill currently helps patients negotiate institutional bills, not professional bills, so our guidance below pertains to institutional bills only.
My diagnosis turned out to be minor. Why was I charged so much?
It’s important to remember that your ER visit costs are based on the symptoms you first describe upon entering the hospital, not your eventual diagnosis, Fries says.
When a patient walks into the emergency room complaining of chest pains, for example, the hospital’s objective is to run tests and administer procedures that can help rule out life-threatening conditions. Even if the doctor ends up discharging the patient with a non life-threatening diagnosis like indigestion, the hospital has already spent the resources to rule out more severe possibilities like a heart attack.
Your ER visit costs are based on the symptoms you first describe upon entering the hospital, not your eventual diagnosis.
“Look at your symptoms first, not what you were diagnosed with,” Fries says. “The level of your ER visit is guided by the symptoms you described, and by the tests the hospital thought were needed based on those symptoms.”
Why was I charged for an ‘ER Visit Level’ 3, 4, or 5? Is this based on severity?
Hospitals will bill you for a line item called “ER Visit Level” that is based on the complexity of your treatment. ER visit levels range from 1-5: ER visit level 1 is the most mild, while ER visit level 5 is the most severe. The level also determines how much the hospital can charge you, from least expensive to most expensive. You may sometimes hear ER visit levels described by their corresponding Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes of 99281, 99282, 99283, 99284 and 99285.
To decide the proper ER visit level, hospitals typically follow certain guidelines from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) . ER level 1-2 visits are reserved for treatment of mild cases like bug bites and sunburns. The majority of ER visits fall between ER visit levels 3-5, with ER visit level 4 being the most common, Fries says.
“Most emergency room claims will qualify as a 99284, because you only need something as simple as IV fluids to get you there,” Fries says.
The majority of ER visits fall between ER visit levels 3-5, with ER visit level 4 being the most common.
Here’s a simple rule of thumb for determining whether your ER visit level was correctly assigned.
ER Visit Level 4
An ER visit level 4 typically requires a minimum of two diagnostic tests — like a lab plus an EKG, or a lab plus an X-ray. Or, any administration of fluids through IV will automatically qualify your visit as an ER visit level 4.
ER Visit Level 5
An ER visit level 5 typically requires a minimum of three diagnostic tests — for example, a lab plus EKG and X-ray. Or, any type of imaging scan like a CT scan or MRI where a patient must ingest or be injected with contrast material, will automatically qualify your visit as an ER visit level 5.
![average cost for emergency room visit average cost for emergency room visit](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/612e9f045f2221976e23951c/638fb4ddffb6300074534562_ER%20visit%20level.png)
I’m not pregnant. Why did I get charged for a pregnancy test?
Many female patients get frustrated when they’re charged for a pregnancy test, even when they’re absolutely certain they’re not pregnant. But this is standard practice and a way for hospitals to protect against unknown pregnancies, Fries says.
If you’re an adult pre-menopausal female, you can count on being asked to do a urine or blood pregnancy test before the hospital will treat you. It’s too risky to both the patient and hospital to administer injections, scans or drugs in the off chance that a patient is unknowingly pregnant.
If you're a female, expect to get a pregnancy test during your ER visit — even if you're not pregnant.
On your itemized ER bill, your pregnancy test will usually show up with a description like “human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG),” which is the hormone being tested. This charge will generally fall under the CPT codes 84702 or 84703 if it’s a blood test, or 81025 if it’s a urine test.
What are some other common ER services I might see on my hospital bill?
Here are a few common procedure names that often show up in your ER visit costs, and what they mean in plain English:
Metabolic panel
This is a bundle of lab tests run from a single blood draw. Patients may get a “basic” metabolic panel under CPT code 80048, or a “comprehensive” metabolic panel under CPT code 80053. These panels cover a set of individual tests that might otherwise be individually charged. For example, a “comprehensive” metabolic panel must include testing for all of the following:
- Carbon dioxide
- Phosphatase, alkaline
- Transferase, alanine amino
- Transferase, aspartate amino
- Urea nitrogen
Venipuncture
Any time you get your blood drawn through a needle, this charge under CPT code 36415 is the line item that bills you for the needle.
This test under CPT code 83690 measures your levels of lipase, which is an enzyme that helps break down fat in your intestines. Your lipase levels may be elevated if you have pancreatitis, which is an inflammation of the pancreas gland.
What are some ER visit cost errors I should look out for?
When analyzing a patient’s ER visit costs for errors, Fries says she goes straight to one place first: Hydration services. If you recall being administered fluids through an IV bag, chances are you got hydration services during your ER visit.
“Hydration services should always be questioned,” Fries says.
Coding guidelines require that the two CPT codes for this service, 96360 and 96361, meet a minimum time requirement of 31 minutes in order for one unit to be billed. These 31 minutes must also be “stand alone” — meaning that the administration of the service cannot overlap with any other type of infusion service. Often, hospitals don’t meet these requirements, rendering the charge unbillable.
Hydration services are a common source of errors in ER hospital visit costs. You can tell if you're being overcharged by checking your medical record.
To verify whether you’re being charged properly, you’ll need your medical record, Fries says. Look for hydration service “start” and “stop” times, which are usually included in the Medication Administration Report (MAR) section of your record. If the hydration service duration is less than 31 minutes of standalone time, you have a strong case to dispute the charge with your hospital. To find out how to get your medical records online, visit our Medical Records guide .
I don’t see any CPT codes on my bill. How can I get them?
CPT codes are the common language used across all hospitals to describe a certain procedure. They’re what enables our medical coders at Goodbill to analyze hospital bills for errors, line item by line item. They also help us compare prices apples-to-apples across hospitals.
CPT codes are the standard language used to describe a certain procedure across all hospitals. They're key to helping you identify errors or inflated charges in your ER hospital bill.
Unfortunately, the hospital bill you get in the mail is most likely a consolidated summary of your ER visit costs and won’t include CPT codes. You’ll need an “itemized bill” from your hospital to get a line-by-line breakdown of each charge, complete with the CPT code and cost.
The good news is that you’re legally entitled under HIPAA to get access to this information. To learn more about your patient rights and how to obtain your itemized bill, check out our Patient Right of Access guide .
Are there other topics you’d like us to cover? Email us at [email protected] and let us know.
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Can Hospital Bills Affect My Credit?
You have time before your bill can go to collections or affect your credit.
Negotiating hospital bills has never been this easy.
Building trust and confidence into every health care transaction.
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Watch CBS News
The most expensive states for ER visits, ranked
By Jessica Learish
December 4, 2020 / 3:56 PM EST / CBS News
![average cost for emergency room visit Sliding doors of emergency room in hospital](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/2e6c79b9-bd12-49be-b004-8538c3873dae/thumbnail/620x413/2c0c9c202e4f14008036813ccd5db89b/anygettyimages-601797385.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Have you ever been in a hospital emergency room? Maybe you broke your leg or had a burst appendix. When medical emergencies strike, an ER visit could spell the difference between life and death.
But, like many things in the American health care system , the cost of this kind of life-saving hospital care varies widely based on where you live or which hospital you visit.
Hospital Pricing Specialists collected billing data from nearly 4,500 hospitals across the country to gauge the average price of a moderate-severity ER visit — the most common kind of visit — in each state. (Think acute pain of unknown origin, or a fever greater than 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit.)
The overall price tag is made up of emergency room charges, lab and radiology tests, pharmacy and supply costs, and other hospital fees. Each line item also includes charges that go toward paying the health care providers themselves.
In this gallery, the numbers are presented before any medical insurance is applied. Here are the 50 states (and Washington, D.C.) ranked by the pre-insurance cost of a moderate-severity ER visit.
51. Maryland
![average cost for emergency room visit Medical Workers Inside Maryland Hospital Work During Coronavirus Pandemic](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/10147c1f-2cd7-4192-a954-8f2df0595d8c/thumbnail/620x408/ac75db2315f1061f7ee7341380037819/marylandgettyimages-1217649916.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
A moderate-severity ER visit in Maryland costs an average of $623 before insurance.
![average cost for emergency room visit Nurse caring for patient](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/b7a1dd6f-294d-47d5-ab42-4b9e1f7778ab/thumbnail/620x413/73b26f1ca2ac90e714d981cfef5ba9fa/mainegettyimages-840267962.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Maine hospitals charge an average of $952 for moderate-severity emergency room visits.
49. West Virginia
![average cost for emergency room visit US-HEALTH-VIRUS-EMERGENCY-MEDIC](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/d43048e7-6899-45aa-aaff-1af315c37f4e/thumbnail/620x465/395fe056e3bc9dd46f3da65470768d3d/anygettyimages-1212730267.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
A visit to a West Virginia ER will run you $1,127 on average.
48. Montana
![average cost for emergency room visit Billings County As Covid-19 Cases Surge In Montana](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/69bc8677-3fe1-4150-8a4c-e8d169f9418e/thumbnail/620x414/917b9c91fc69c7ee8279cde7c221a91e/montanagettyimages-1229592547.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
The average price of emergency hospital care in Montana is $1,138.
47. Louisiana
![average cost for emergency room visit Medical Monitoring Station For Coronavirus Patients Set Up At Morial Convention Center](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/0baba102-5a7e-4925-abec-868feca48b68/thumbnail/620x413/38a91807792f09cf5d70c70adb1fc844/louisianagettyimages-1216851980.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
A visit to a Louisiana ER costs an average of $1,184 before insurance.
To alleviate overcrowding at local hospitals, this New Orleans field hospital was built in 2020 to accommodate up to 1,000 COVID-19 patients.
46. Massachusetts
![average cost for emergency room visit MGH During Pandemic](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/27a08dd9-c76f-4482-ab53-ac79ffeac87a/thumbnail/620x413/3485e44350235a3a91369cad224acbec/massgettyimages-1209890633.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Hospitals charge an average of $1,200 for moderate-severity ER visits in Massachusetts.
45. North Dakota
![average cost for emergency room visit Coney Island Hospital Emergency Room](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/82c5b4b4-596d-433a-8237-4ee31e7aafc8/thumbnail/620x397/2e1b34801c2e3410a104fdce39069e49/anygettyimages-1649632.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Have a medical emergency in North Dakota? The average price tag for a moderate-severity visit will be around $1,245.
44. Michican
![average cost for emergency room visit US-HEALTH-VIRUS-CANADA-DIPLOMACY](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/4b13d2a5-1643-4939-bde5-951682a309d0/thumbnail/620x413/2ab789af2607d0c17170098ac7291e52/michigangettyimages-1212730828.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Visits to emergency rooms in Michigan cost an average of $1,273.
![average cost for emergency room visit X-ray image of lung with pneumonia](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/5979a7d1-8376-410e-b8fb-575b74801550/thumbnail/620x604/eca6f83bb356ed8fbdab5abd39180c8b/anygettyimages-1219020608.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Kansas hospitals charge around $1,294 per moderate-severity ER visit.
42. Arkansas
![average cost for emergency room visit United Memorial Medical Center In Houston, Texas Takes On The Coronavirus](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/4f43881c-49d0-4f39-82ba-a3074689ad0b/thumbnail/620x413/8000d089a198017a258da1ab437a08c4/anygettyimages-1224595188.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
It will run you around $1,304 to receive care in an Arkansas ER.
![average cost for emergency room visit CHRISTMAS LIFESAVERS](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/11e37568-dcd6-4431-b384-652d9b498499/thumbnail/620x413/b2a1f3ca4ddf91e6dabaf7ec1169ffcb/iowagettyimages-112846591.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Iowa hospitals charge an average of $1,377 per ER visit.
Here, volunteers on the Strawberry Point Ambulance Service pose during a Christmas snowstorm.
40. Vermont
![average cost for emergency room visit Legs of medic running with gurney along hospital corridor](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/96c9d33a-d285-414c-a95f-93d7bfce4357/thumbnail/620x414/cddb7a1faed06f0f0c992203d65e25a9/anygettyimages-475147771.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
It costs an average of $1,386 for an ER visit in Vermont.
39. Wyoming
![average cost for emergency room visit Florida, Miami Beach, broken shoulder, post operative x-ray](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/89a2aa2e-7827-4ba9-ae83-20d554015b12/thumbnail/620x413/7674265dc6baf9bf26947618b0945b7b/anygettyimages-1262815669.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Hospitals in Wyoming charge an average of $1,411 per moderate-severity ER visit.
![average cost for emergency room visit Cleveland As Ohio Covid-19 Cases Surge](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/56359b3e-6101-47b0-8029-49ca06890bf7/thumbnail/620x414/2267caede573341b35f51a42b00e2250/ohiogettyimages-1229641896.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Visits to the ER in Ohio cost an average of $1,435 before insurance.
![average cost for emergency room visit San Francisco Bay Area — coronavirus](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/ffda2fcb-88a1-4e3d-85b4-7b56abcd9a34/thumbnail/620x413/6f28c38c47735ea674c894cf70b66f5f/anygettyimages-1226430682.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
On average, ER visits in Oregon cost $1,437 before insurance.
36. Minnesota
![average cost for emergency room visit An ambulance on its way to the ER passes the nurses who are protesting the lack of masks and scrubs during the pandemic. They are demanding equipment, training, staffing and transpaency from United hospital and other hospitals.](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/2e2a42b9-acb4-4721-8208-814be309e0d7/thumbnail/620x413/5e903ac13ccf68dda9d4477c6eeb4077/minnesotagettyimages-1239474274.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Minnesota hospitals charge an average of $1,462 per moderate-severity ER visit.
![average cost for emergency room visit US-HEALTH-BREAST-MILK](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/008990db-1b79-449b-b3ef-2c425633e482/thumbnail/620x413/a1e31d5cb9f6c17d7ae21c152009e69b/utahgettyimages-1195906725.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
In Utah, the average ER visit costs around $1,464.
34. Oklahoma
![average cost for emergency room visit intubate endotracheal tube](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/ace34e88-1705-42ed-b307-8e0b79b0f811/thumbnail/620x355/82cb517c1733fbd4fa9097e6e9fc9348/anygettyimages-510948935.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Before insurance, an ER visit in Oklahoma costs around $1,466.
33. Connecticut
![average cost for emergency room visit US - Ebola - Yale Student tested for Ebola Virus at New Haven Hospital](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/c4bdb6d2-9d13-48a2-8440-ed1062671aca/thumbnail/620x413/0e11d96432bd6ef91d0810d1933d2d00/connecticutgettyimages-527447356.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Connecticut emergency rooms charge an average of $1,493 before insurance.
31 (TIE). Wisconsin
![average cost for emergency room visit Tensions High In Milwaukee Night After Police Shooting Of Armed Suspect Sparks Violence In City](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/78714bf6-6739-4228-bb8e-c0c3589178db/thumbnail/620x444/3d8d16b837d6a5834dba9773b5b76c9f/wisconsingettyimages-589688996.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
A moderate-severity ER visit in Wisconsin will cost you around $1,496.
31 (TIE). Alabama
![average cost for emergency room visit Doctors wrapping African boy's leg in hospital](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/8b1464bf-8bcf-49fd-8202-1e9b4dceb35b/thumbnail/620x413/3e0407c70fc1032bfbc428844bfb2f84/anygettyimages-73773229.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
In Alabama, you'll pay an average of $1,496 for a moderate-severity ER visit.
30. New Mexico
![average cost for emergency room visit Inside Perry Memorial Hospital As GOP Turns to Modest Obamacare Changes](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/f473fcda-e2e7-43c2-bca2-9a6dbf71ecda/thumbnail/620x413/94adeac20c48b439cec3d0787f89dc48/anygettyimages-843419146.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
It costs $1,574 for a moderate-severity ER visit in New Mexico.
29. Mississippi
![average cost for emergency room visit Busy doctors office](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/428d57a5-c47c-4406-b61a-3a2d671eab2b/thumbnail/620x424/5544977fb22d95cbcf9e59c3a8db7be3/anygettyimages-114426837.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Mississippi hospitals have an average sticker price of $1,583 per ER visit.
28. North Carolina
![average cost for emergency room visit North Carolina Covid-19 Cases Top 93,000](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/db4ef0e9-375e-4b56-8cfb-670b2e7b486f/thumbnail/620x413/6d925b4e4e4130c613977fc5787b11db/northcarolinnagettyimages-1227655410.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
It costs an average of $1,589 for ER treatment in North Carolina.
26 (TIE). Georgia
![average cost for emergency room visit Atlanta Emergency Room](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/faab769b-4bb2-49a2-946d-738482daf103/thumbnail/620x413/d740ae34efc6a9898ff4e5df4a7f5a74/georgiagettyimages-98618761.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Georgia emergency rooms charge an average of $1,596 before insurance.
26 (TIE). Delaware
![average cost for emergency room visit XRay technicians Victor Rios, and Penelope Sanchez, of the St. Francis Hospital Trauma team, prepar](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/5cb30013-e6d3-401b-9fc9-eb5712b2c078/thumbnail/620x413/ac3e56467d379007aa41684aeb545a36/anygettyimages-563592431.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Before insurance, an ER visit in Delaware costs around $1,596.
25. Indiana
![average cost for emergency room visit Doctor selects information for patient](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/529e987c-5200-4546-9350-de7bc9359335/thumbnail/620x414/ef6671c93f4816bd469a9a57c33e7592/anygettyimages-114426855-jpg-crdownload.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Hospitals in Indiana charge an average of $1,618 per ER visit.
24. South Dakota
![average cost for emergency room visit Rural Understaffed Hospitals Get Help From A Virtual ER Staff Via Video](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/89c42e5d-27f6-44ab-b505-18464907740f/thumbnail/620x425/998a38684f086a3092170d56604e5f0f/southdakotagettyimages-1183012399.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
The average sticker price of a South Dakota ER visit is $1,641.
23. Pennsylvania
![average cost for emergency room visit US-VOTE-BIDEN-POLITICS](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/e0b654a0-98dc-4e59-8962-8049ed310074/thumbnail/620x413/66a6636d4b9bd346aa607621534ec435/penngettyimages-1229514737.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
A moderate-severity ER visit in Pennsylvania costs $1,645 before insurance.
22. New York
![average cost for emergency room visit New York City Continues To Idle During Coronavirus Shutdown](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/31a0f7aa-1391-48bc-ab50-bae29152afed/thumbnail/620x413/78bdfac8012f866533d8f8d08591ce15/nygettyimages-1220032934.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
The average visit to the ER in New York comes in at $1,668.
21. Missouri
![average cost for emergency room visit Medical Debt is a Burden for Both Health Providers and Patients](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/294f95d3-3d6a-4e9a-a7bb-7940667f2ec7/thumbnail/620x398/e16dd3ddb592a282871eb9c7143e1f9b/mogettyimages-1194363262.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Missouri hospitals charge $1,717 before insurance.
20. Kentucky
![average cost for emergency room visit Doctor in hospital taking a swab from patient's mouth](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/54eaa586-650e-40b1-a59e-f1480032bbfc/thumbnail/620x413/4fc89fa43c9fd4e1a2a570ce6fec6d80/anygettyimages-1217819848.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
In Kentucky, hospitals bill an average of $1,740 per ER visit.
19. Rhode Island
![average cost for emergency room visit Coronavirus Pandemic Causes Climate Of Anxiety And Changing Routines In America](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/3b404c00-b78b-4803-bbb3-59393cc05ea5/thumbnail/620x413/61cd7abffc4dc7a2ad1ff770a4e4364a/anygettyimages-1224483216.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Before insurance, the average Rhode Island ER visit costs $1,750.
18. South Carolina
![average cost for emergency room visit Paramedics taking patient on stretcher from ambulance to hospital](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/c46ebe77-db5e-4700-adb1-cac310b7f634/thumbnail/620x413/38109fd5312c0f8b59aedd2c9ae0cd1a/anygettyimages-73807258.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
It costs an average of $1,758 for an ER visit in South Carolina.
17. New Hampshire
![average cost for emergency room visit Bay Area Hospital Workers On The Frontlines Of COVID-19 Pandemic](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/3de2a91f-0089-4723-a0f2-dd365f3db21a/thumbnail/620x417/4ff268c94113dac3d1c2883edcb5df6a/anygettyimages-1226429182.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
In New Hampshire, a moderate-severity ER visit costs an average of $1,787.
16. Illinois
![average cost for emergency room visit What happens to the body during a severe case of coronavirus?](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/ca1fdeb7-b320-44d4-b6c0-01dcd4e4fff3/thumbnail/620x416/ec78bf8f90f5b11ce35c432423ebe4de/illinoisgettyimages-1210403960.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
For an ER visit in Illinois, hospitals bill an average of $1,818 before insurance.
15. Washington
![average cost for emergency room visit Recovered COVID-19 Patients Donate Plasma For Experimental Antibodies Treatment](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/bc5742d0-914a-47e4-802c-173e7c81c727/thumbnail/620x413/4ebb2e9c0b7fffea685921679e9b23da/washingtongettyimages-1210313316.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Washington hospitals charge $1,841, on average, for each ER visit.
Here, a COVID-19 survivor donates convalescent plasma in Seattle.
14. Nebraska
![average cost for emergency room visit Doctor From Sierra Leone To Be Treated For Ebola At Nebraska Medical Center](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/3625f353-938a-4daf-bbe5-3cc56b0cc337/thumbnail/620x407/036ecff82ea0bee2ed25d7998656b568/nebraskagettyimages-459044946.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Nebraska emergency rooms charge an average of $1,844 before insurance.
13. Washington D.C.
![average cost for emergency room visit Xinhua Headlines: COVID-19 resurgence puts fragile U.S. economic recovery at risk as states pause reopening](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/97ce5d44-e5be-4017-b5b5-9d2fc5939ab1/thumbnail/620x413/dfb321f8f086a90af44017a81df8ef2d/dcgettyimages-1226008054.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
In the nation's capital, hospitals charge $1,879 for the average moderate-severity ER visit.
12. Tennessee
![average cost for emergency room visit Covid-19 Case Rise In Tennessee As Counties Continue Without Mask Mandate](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/70c7a7e5-fac6-453d-a83a-4718ea6efff8/thumbnail/620x412/be61df9d2a2b295c8fc9ca9eb0f38bd2/tennesseegettyimages-1229654302.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
In this Appalachian state, the average ER visit rings up at $1,883 before insurance.
11. Virginia
![average cost for emergency room visit US-HEALTH-VIRUS](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/11006383-1836-475d-a25c-a9fbd7c25c74/thumbnail/620x402/f3a475ca235b30866abb60c98f67a4c2/vagettyimages-1209562501.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Hospitals in Virginia charge ER patients an average of $1,941 for moderate-severity cases.
![average cost for emergency room visit COLORADO COVID-19, AURORA, COLORADO EMERGENCY ROOM](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/59bcc009-93aa-415e-8e66-952e6e42e388/thumbnail/620x413/b1751cfdc5ad07f274d3f42deb6ea61b/anygettyimages-1223299673.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
On average, it costs $2,070 to receive ER treatment in Alaska.
![average cost for emergency room visit Obama Family Friend Taken To Hospital](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/ad829297-f42c-4589-a715-dc9c7ae0cd65/thumbnail/620x413/06b82b466bb5c02e30dda81c7bb89f78/hawaiigettyimages-95470778.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
An ER visit in Hawaii costs an average of $2,076 before insurance.
![average cost for emergency room visit Hospital emergency room entrance](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/6217051d-9b02-4b59-961d-699e70953842/thumbnail/620x413/28da068e84a94b488f1b42882afd7b59/idahogettyimages-1225590827.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
The average visit to the ER in Idaho comes in at $2,159.
![average cost for emergency room visit US-HEALTH-VIRUS-NAVAJO](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/5f754748-18d5-4f1d-9035-658ef7c70f1a/thumbnail/620x452/dc10b5bb954d1eee59f96d31be326863/arizonagettyimages-1214941458.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
It costs an average of $2,283 per visit to an Arizona emergency room.
![average cost for emergency room visit COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit Within A Houston Hospital Cares For Patients As Cases Continue To Rise](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/16d08051-dc04-454e-8c7b-c235b07c2ade/thumbnail/620x413/8d8e0d4747ab4088b0c89c2ab9f1a0d5/texasgettyimages-1229570307.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Everything is bigger in Texas? The ER bills are certainly quite large. Hospitals charge an average of $2,318 per visit.
![average cost for emergency room visit Southern Nevada's Healthcare Community Teams Up With Only-In-Las Vegas Pop Up Parades & Performances To Support #MaskUpNV PSA Campaign](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/cb9a58b6-6239-47c7-a3df-a2a64ee6e6d3/thumbnail/620x440/8d83e838df6436d54fcbf398f6c78981/nevadagettyimages-1265632731.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Before insurance, the average Nevada emergency room bill rings in at $2,583.
4. Colorado
![average cost for emergency room visit COLORADO COVID-19, AURORA, COLORADO EMERGENCY ROOM](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/64f52332-6a84-45c8-b608-22cc8c9d153b/thumbnail/620x413/5becd33234d7479633881fcd74f7abc6/coloradogettyimages-1223299675.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Hospitals in Colorado charge an average of $2,886 per ER visit.
3. California
![average cost for emergency room visit First responders in the ER and the ICU at RUHS dealing with COVID-19 victims and trauma victims in Moreno Valley, CA](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/82246b2e-b043-4105-936e-a646d24b8c30/thumbnail/620x413/f7ba29275e8d445ee9b1f6d0a9190fea/cagettyimages-1222922336.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
ER visits in the Golden State cost an average of $2,960 before insurance.
2. New Jersey
![average cost for emergency room visit First responders in the ER and the ICU at RUHS dealing with COVID-19 victims and trauma victims in Moreno Valley, CA](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/4d83ea76-5ac3-40e9-ba0f-f35a2bcce64d/thumbnail/620x413/56f174144d0afd991ca75e10cad8fcd2/anygettyimages-1222922333.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
New Jersey hospitals bill a whopping $3,087 per ER visit before insurance.
![average cost for emergency room visit COVID-19 Pandemic - Orlando](https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2020/11/18/e6c80413-9091-4fcd-9b98-eaaf87ed1d69/thumbnail/620x412/06683d25a0ea13edfc3986306abe7c65/flgettyimages-1207570635.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232#)
Florida is the most expensive state for emergency room visits. Moderate-severity ER patients are billed an average of $3,102 before. insurance.
Emergency Room Costs: Why Is Going to the ER So Expensive?
![average cost for emergency room visit Craig Landes](https://mlsjoxwh2dv5.i.optimole.com/cb:fJ2b~7176/w:60/h:60/q:eco/f:best/https://finmasters.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/head-shot-3.jpg)
Craig Landes helps busy entrepreneurs get their books written, and writes content in tech, travel, finance, and real estate.
Americans visit the emergency room over 130 million times per year, according to recent data from the CDC [1] ✓ ✓ Trusted source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC is an agency of the United States federal government tasked with protecting public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability. . When you or a loved one are facing a medical crisis, you are not thinking about the money. But when the hospital bill arrives, emergency room costs can be a big shock.
⚠️ Insurance may not protect you. Many insurance plans have high deductibles and high out-of-pocket maximums. You could be on the hook for thousands of dollars for a single trip to the ER.
What goes into emergency room costs? Why does ER care cost so much, even when you arrive with health insurance? And how can you mitigate those costs in future visits? Here’s what you need to know to understand the costs, understand your options, and plan for these unexpected costs.
What am I Paying For When I Visit the Emergency Room?
According to a recent United Health Group study, the cost of an average non-emergency ER visit is $2,000 [2] . If you have insurance, you’ll be paying a co-pay of around $150 for the visit itself. That doesn’t include other fees that might get added on, like the lab work and prescriptions that might be required after an ER visit, or the services of an out-of-network doctor.
To understand emergency room costs, we have to break them down into their component parts.
🚑 The Ambulance Ride
If you have a true emergency, you will probably arrive at the emergency room in an ambulance. When emergencies happen and you are incapacitated, the ambulance will get care to you as you are transported to the medical facility. That en route care can literally be a matter of life and death, so it’s good to have it. It can also be expensive, so it’s good to have a handle on what goes into that transportation and care cost.
A recent study from the University of Michigan found that, even with insurance, the average ground ambulance transportation left the patient on the hook for an average of $450 [3] . An air ambulance can cost well over $20,000!
That’s before you even set foot in the ER.
🏥 Emergency Room Costs
The cost of your ER visit will vary with the cause of your visit. Here’s a rundown of average costs of some typical reasons for a visit:
- If you come to the ER as a result of a car accident or some other very serious injury, one cost you will likely encounter is the trauma fee . This is the cost of having the trauma unit get you stabilized. You certainly WANT to have trauma care when it is needed, but it will cost you. In an interview for Fresh Air [4] , reporter Sara Kliff says: “ This is the fee that trauma centers charge for essentially assembling a trauma team to meet you when you’re coming in and those folks out in the field, maybe the EMTs, for example, have determined that you meet certain trauma criteria. ”
- Another common reason for an ER visit is a broken bone. Setting a broken leg can cost as much as $7,500 .
- Lab work and diagnostics can add hundreds of dollars to your bill, depending on what is called for.
- Doctors’ fees for sub-trauma level care can add hundreds of dollars an hour to your ER bill. These fees can start at around $100 for basic care and well over $1,000 for the first hour of critical care [5] .
- In-network/out of network fees . One thing to realize about doctor fees – just because you go to an in-network hospital doesn’t mean you will necessarily be seen by an in-network doctor.
The more complex your emergency, the higher the cost will be.
💼 Costs of Doing Business
Beyond the care you receive during an ER visit, there are operating costs of an ER that you are also paying for. Sarah Kliff describes the “facility fee” as “ the cost of keeping the doors open 24/7 in the ER “. This charge can vary a lot from one ER to another, usually ranging from $50 to around $400 .
👇 The Bottom Line on ER Costs
Even with insurance, the cost of an ER visit will likely be more than the visit co-pay itself. You will be responsible for the fees incurred up to your deductible, then the co-insurance (often 20% of the bill). Without insurance, you will need to advocate for yourself and find resources to either reduce the bill or make a payment plan that works for you.
Is Urgent Care a Better Option?
So what about all those Urgent Care facilities that are cropping up in strip malls across the country? Are those a better option?
Urgent care facilities are set up to handle non-life-threatening situations. If you’ve been in an accident and have a major injury, get to the ER. If you are experiencing chest pains or other heart-related symptoms, get to the ER.
But if you are experiencing minor cuts, a UTI, back pain, or minor burns, you might save money and time by going to an urgent care facility.
👉 In short, if life and limb are in danger, get to the emergency room.
What if I’m Uninsured?
If you are facing a serious and/or life-threatening medical emergency, you will receive care. Emergency rooms cannot refuse to treat a patient. That care will not be free. If you don’t have insurance, those costs could be far above your means. You’ll have to ask about the hospital’s charity policy, work out a payment plan, and contact Medicaid to see if you qualify.
Compared with a copay of $150 plus some lab fees, you would be looking at an average bill at an average of around $2,000 . And if you have more serious issues or get transported via helicopter ambulance, the cost could be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
7 Ways to Manage (or Avoid) the Cost of Emergency Care
Medical emergencies are by nature hard to predict, but there are things you can do to mitigate their financial impact.
- See a primary care physician . Primary care physicians can provide care for non-life-threatening conditions at lower costs than an ER.
- Use Urgent Care . If it’s not a life-threatening emergency, an Urgent Care facility might be a better option if the facility can treat your illness or problem.
- Try Telemedicine . Online telemedicine providers like GoodRx provide affordable consultations that can help you decide whether you need an ER visit or not.
- Use a Free Clinic . Check the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics for options in your area.
- Consider using a Health Savings Account (HSA) . It will reduce your taxable income and give you a cushion for medical costs.
- Cut your costs . There are lots of ways to get help with medical bills , including using government resources like Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP . You can also find help with groups like the Patient Advocacy Foundation (PAF). If you are uninsured, PAF has resources to help you understand your rights in that situation. If you feel that a bill is inappropriate a patient advocate can help you negotiate.
- Prepare . It’s hard to think straight during a medical crisis, so plan beforehand. Find out what urgent care facilities are in your area and what cases they accept. Locate primary care doctors in your area. Learn about ER costs at hospitals in your area. Find out which hospitals have relationships with your insurer. If you have a plan in place you won’t have to think about money when trouble strikes.
In a true emergency, there may be little you can do to control costs. If you’re unconscious and someone calls an ambulance, all that matters is getting care. Those incidents are rare, though, and many ER visits are avoidable or manageable.
Prioritize Your Health
All financial planning is about planning for the future, which includes the unexpected. An ER visit definitely qualifies as the unexpected. First and foremost, you’ve got to take care of yourself. Without your health, a lot of other financial problems can begin to pile up.
The priority is getting the care you need. You also have to take care of your finances. Understanding the emergency room costs can help you manage your health and those costs more effectively.
🏥 Interested to learn more about the underlying reasons for the high cost of healthcare in the US? Start here: Why Is Healthcare So Expensive?
By Craig Landes
Contributing writer.
To support the facts within our articles FinMasters editorial team uses only high quality primary sources. Read our editorial policy to learn more about how we make sure our content is unbiased, accurate and up-to-date.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/emergency-department.htm
[2] https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/newsroom/posts/2019-07-22-high-cost-emergency-department-visits.html
[3] https://ihpi.umich.edu/news/sky-high-surprise-bills-air-ambulance-flights-possible-many-patients
[4] https://www.npr.org/2019/03/13/702975393/why-an-er-visit-can-cost-so-much-even-for-those-with-health-insurance
[5] https://health.costhelper.com/emergency-room.html
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An ER visit costs $1,500 to $3,000 on average without insurance, with most people spending about $2,100 for an urgent, non-life-threatening health issue. The cost of an emergency room visit depends on the severity of the condition and the tests, treatments, and medications needed to treat it. Average ER visit cost - Chart.
With Health Insurance: $50-$150 Copay. Without Health Insurance: $150-$3,000+. Typical costs: An emergency room visit typically is covered by health insurance. For patients covered by health insurance, out-of-pocket cost for an emergency room visit typically consists of a copay, usually $50-$150 or more, which often is waived if the patient is ...
Learn More. For patients without health insurance, an emergency room visit cost $2715 on average or more, depending on the severity of the condition and what diagnostic tests and treatment are performed. The least expensive is in Maryland at $682/visit and the most expensive is in Florida, $3,394/visit. The average copay for an ER visit is $625.
Medicare Part A only covers an emergency room visit if you're admitted to the hospital. Medicare Part B covers 100% of most ER costs for most injuries, or if you become suddenly ill. ... as well as basic lab work. The average cost for an urgent care visit is around $180, according to UnitedHealth. 3. Retail Health Clinics. You may have ...
Highlights. There were 144.8 million total emergency department (ED) visits in 2017 with aggregate ED costs totaling $76.3 billion (B). Aggregate ED costs were higher for females ($42.6B, 56 percent) than males ($33.7B, 44 percent); 55 percent of total ED visits were for females.
This visualization depicts both counts and rates of emergency department visits from 2016-2022 for the 10 leading primary diagnoses and reasons for visit, stratified by selected patient and hospital characteristics. Rankings for the 10 leading categories were identified using weighted data from 2022 and were then assessed in prior years ...
Average Cost for ER Visits. In 2019, the average cost for an ER visit by an insured patient was $1,082. Those who were uninsured spent an average of $1,220. Average costs can vary by state and illness but range from $623-$3,087. Why an ER visit is so expensive . Emergency rooms are very expensive operations to manage for a few reasons.
Emergency Room (ER) costs can vary greatly depending on what type of medical care you need. How much you pay for the visit depends on your health insurance plan. Most health plans may require you to pay something out-of-pocket for an emergency room visit. A visit to the ER may cost more if you have a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and you ...
The US population made 144.8 million emergency department (ED) visits in 2017, costing a total of $76.3 billion, estimated a recent statistical brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). That year, 13.3% of the US population incurred an expense for an ED visit, and more than ...
As noted, the average cost for an emergency room visit can be anywhere between $2,400 to $2,600. If you visit the ER without insurance, you could end up paying that entire amount — or more — yourself. According to Health System Tracker, 25% of ER visits cost $3,043 or more. People who have employer health plans still pay, on average, $646 ...
Costs of Emergency Department Visits By Age (PDF, 1.6 MB) Source: HCUP Statistical Brief #268, Costs of Emergency Department Visits in the United States, 2017 ( PDF, 326 KB). View the list of HCUP Data Partners. Page last reviewed March 2021. Page originally created March 2021.
You wouldn't believe what some emergency rooms charge, or maybe you would because you've gotten bills. For example, one hospital charged $76 for Bacitracin antibacterial ointment. One woman who ...
The average cost of visiting the emergency room without health insurance will vary depending on the facility and services used. For instance, UnitedHealthcare places the average cost at $2,700 for ER visits. [1] Consider that a visit to the emergency room for a minor injury such as a sprained ankle or a cut that requires stitches can cost ...
Aggregate costs for emergency department (ED) visits by patient sex and age group, 2017. Figure 1 presents aggregate ED visit costs by patient sex and age group in 2017 as well as number of ED visits. Estimates of aggregate cost use the product of the number of cases and the average estimated cost per visit to account for records with missing ED charge information.
The average emergency room visit cost $1,389 in 2017, up 176% over the decade. That is the cost of entry for emergency care; it does not include extra charges such as blood tests, IVs, drugs or ...
The average cost of treating common primary care treatable conditions at a hospital ED is $2,032, according to UnitedHealth Group. That number is 12 times higher than visiting a physician office ($167) and 10 times higher than traveling to an urgent care center ($193) to treat those same conditions. In other words, visiting either a physician ...
However, the most complex emergency department visits have four times higher out-of-pocket costs than the least complex visits. Even the least complex visits, some of which could be treated by a primary care office or urgent care center, cost an average of $205 out-of-pocket ($592 total).
Costs of Emergency Department Visits By Age. 145 Million Emergency Department Visits in 2017. Patients Age 17 and Younger = Average Cost Per Visit $290. Patients Age 65 and Older = Average Cost Per Visit $690. Source: AHRQ, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #268: Costs of Emergency Department Visits in the United States ...
ER level 1-2 visits are reserved for treatment of mild cases like bug bites and sunburns. The majority of ER visits fall between ER visit levels 3-5, with ER visit level 4 being the most common, Fries says. "Most emergency room claims will qualify as a 99284, because you only need something as simple as IV fluids to get you there," Fries says.
Here are the 50 states (and Washington, D.C.) ranked by the pre-insurance cost of a moderate-severity ER visit. 51. Maryland. A moderate-severity ER visit in Maryland costs an average of $623 ...
Another common reason for an ER visit is a broken bone. Setting a broken leg can cost as much as $7,500. Lab work and diagnostics can add hundreds of dollars to your bill, depending on what is called for. Doctors' fees for sub-trauma level care can add hundreds of dollars an hour to your ER bill. These fees can start at around $100 for basic ...
On average, urgent care visits cost between $100 and $200. ER visits can cost upwards of over $1,000 a visit, with an average visit costing between $1,200 and $1,300. The cost of care shouldn't be the only consideration. Time is important, too. The average wait time at an emergency room is four hours. Wait times at urgent care visits are ...