Jakob Rodgers, The Gazette
“A company specializing in free-standing emergency rooms plans to build a three-story hospital with up to 52 beds along the fast-growing North Nevada Avenue corridor in Colorado Springs. While such ERs do not have the in-depth capabilities of full-service hospitals, the company touts each facility as having board-certified physicians, registered nurses and the same amenities as traditional emergency rooms, such as CT scanners, ultrasounds and digital X-ray machines.
The company’s free-standing ER business model has garnered criticism for driving up health care costs and not accepting Medicaid or Medicare. People in search of little or no wait times have gone to the facilities even though they typically charge emergency room rates, regardless of the ailment, health care experts said. Often, people seek care at free-standing ERs when a less-costly visit to a primary care physician would do just fine, said Adam Fox, with the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.”
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