How Much Will Urgent Care Cost Me? September 2024

Knowing What to Expect for Urgent Care Costs

When you need healthcare, you can’t always wait for your doctor’s office to open, and your problem might not be severe enough for an emergency room visit. Understanding your urgent care costs ahead of time can help you determine your best option for paying for the services you receive with or without health insurance.

What Is Urgent Care?

Urgent care is for an illness or injury that is non-life-threatening but requires attention fairly quickly, possibly within the next 24 hours. If you have an ailment or injury without serious symptoms or underlying medical issues, then you likely have a condition that needs urgent care, but not emergency care. That can make a difference in where you seek treatment.

When to Seek Urgent Care

Here is a list of some of the conditions that are considered appropriate for seeking urgent care:

• Cold and flu symptoms

• Fevers

• Bronchitis

• Animal and insect bites

• Simple broken bones and sprains

• Cuts

• Back pain

• Abdominal pain

• Mild burns

• Urinary tract infections

• Diarrhea

• Dehydration

• Vomiting

• X-rays and lab tests

You can seek treatment at an urgent care center with any of these or similar conditions. However, if an injury or illness could end your life, call 911 or get to an emergency room as quickly as possible.

What Is an Urgent Care Center?

Urgent care centers treat acute illnesses and injuries that don’t require a trip to the emergency room. They are like the middle ground between your primary care physician and the emergency room. If your doctor isn’t available or you don’t have a doctor, you can seek care at an urgent care center instead of an emergency room.

Most urgent care facilities take walk-in patients and are open seven days a week. You can be treated by one of many registered nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and licensed medical doctors. Urgent care centers also may have multiple exam rooms and diagnostic equipment onsite.

While most urgent care centers are open seven days a week, they generally aren’t open 24 hours a day, like emergency rooms. You can search “cheap urgent care near me” to find urgent care facilities in your community and check their available hours.

Many centers post the medical issues they treat so that you can find one that is appropriate for your illness or injury. For example, some urgent care clinics specialize in caring for children or pregnant women.

Reasons to Go to an Urgent Care Center

When you get sick or injured—assuming neither condition is life-threatening—consider these key reasons to visit an urgent care center instead of an emergency room:

• You’ll receive the treatment and care you need at your convenience.

• With an average wait time of 30 minutes, you’ll be seen faster.

• Urgent care centers often are open evenings and on weekends.

• Your treatment typically can cost you less.

For your medical care, your doctor should always be your first choice. However, an urgent care center can be a faster, less expensive choice than an emergency room when your physician isn’t available.

Is Urgent Care Expensive?

Whether you have health insurance or not, you may be wondering, “Is urgent care free?” Many people believe emergency rooms are free because they must treat patients, with or without insurance. But just like emergency care, which isn’t free, urgent care isn’t free, either.

The average urgent care cost is $100 to $200. However, the amount you can pay at an urgent care clinic depends on the treatment you receive, whether you had any additional tests and your location. For instance, urgent care in urban centers often is more expensive than in rural communities.

Urgent care prices are about 10 times less than prices you can pay for treatments in an emergency room. This means that a trip to an emergency room for an illness or injury that could have been treated in an urgent care center for $200 could cost $2,000.

Does Insurance Cover Urgent Care?

Most of the procedures at an urgent care center can be covered by insurance. How much is urgent care with insurance exactly? It can depend on your insurance and whether the urgent care center is in the network for your specific health insurance company.

If the clinic is in your network, you may have to pay nothing, a copay, coinsurance or a deductible. You can check with your marketplace or group insurance plan to see if the urgent care center is in-network and how payments may be handled.

If you don’t have insurance, you will have to pay for your treatment when service is rendered. If you’re proactive, many urgent care centers will work with you to tackle your urgent care cost.

You can search for “urgent care visit cost without insurance near me” to locate clinics in your community that can work with you. Consider calling them or talking to someone as soon as you enter the clinic to discuss payment options. Many clinics offer reduced prices, payment plans or financing arrangements to pay for your medical bill.

One question some patients have about urgent care centers is, “Does urgent care bill you later with insurance?” Some do, and some don’t. You can help yourself by asking the urgent care center before your appointment.

Most centers require payment at the time of service. The clinic may file a claim on your behalf if it denies your insurance. Then, you can be reimbursed by your insurer later.

Discuss Your Insurance Needs With ConsumerShield Today

Urgent care centers offer quality medical care for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries at a cost far less than an emergency room. With health insurance, you can benefit from coverage for urgent care services.

At ConsumerShield, we can help you with your insurance needs. Get in touch with us to get started today.