Health Care Confusion Continues in North Texas… Despite New Transparency Law
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - When you're sick, you want help fast. You might miss the fine print that says how much that help will cost.
So we read the fine print for you…
"I walked in and they said, 'Hi,' and they rolled out a wheelchair …they gave me a bunch of papers to sign," Linda Austin-Morris told CBS 11's I-Team, recalling her visit in January to the an emergency room in Colleyville.
"As I was sitting in the waiting room filling out the papers they said, 'Oh, that's okay. You can fill those out later,' " Austin-Morris said.
Forty minutes later, she was out the door – a shot in the arm, x-ray taken, and a medical bill that would catch up with her two weeks later.
Austin-Morris said she was startled by the bill – nearly $3,900.
She said she now realizes the mistake she made: going to a free-standing emergency room clinic for a relatively minor medical need that could have been easily handled in a doctor's office or a less expensive urgent care clinic.
Free-standing E-R clinics are popping up throughout North Texas. And because they are equipped and staffed like a regular hospital emergency room, the cost to go to one is much higher.
"They should be made to notify you right there. 'Listen, this is an emergency room. And if you come here, you have to pay our fee,'" Austin-Morris said.
The Texas legislature in late 2015 did, in fact, pass a law requiring free-standing emergency rooms to do just that.
It required E-R clinics to, among other things, "prominently and conspicuously" post notices in their front entrances that say "it charges rates comparable to a hospital emergency room, and may charge a facility fee."
So the I-Team went undercover to several emergency room clinics throughout North Texas to see just how prominently displayed these notices are.
At one clinic we visited, the notice was easy to spot, front and center on the reception counter.
But at another E-R clinic, the notice was off to the side of the lobby, the print was much smaller, there was no heading at the top of the page, and the explanation of higher fees was only mentioned at the bottom of the page.
At one of the clinics, the posting was nicely framed, and the print font was fancy, if not somewhat hard to read. And it was placed on a magazine table, in a far corner of the room.
A staff member there told us: "It's tiny. I will make note of that to our office manager. It needs to be a little bit more legible."
State Rep. Stephanie Klick, a North Richland Hills Republican with a nursing license, told the I-Team she will not be pleased if she finds that the new law is being ignored.
"If they don't comply, there will probably be efforts to place some penalties," she warned.
At the clinic where Austin-Morris went, the required notice now hangs prominently on the wall.
But she said she did not see it when she went there, and that no one explained the cost differences between that clinic and a regular doctor's office or urgent care center.
"I'm going to keep fighting it until the end," she said, adding that from now on she will steer clear of any free-standing emergency room.
No one from any of the E-R clinics we visited would go on camera. But a spokesman for an industry support group, the Texas Association of Freestanding Emergency Centers, said they support the new law requiring more transparency.
If you wish to challenge your bill or the health services you received, click on the following links for help:
For other questions, you can reach out to the industry group, TAFEC.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)