DHealth Source Article | Comments Courtesy of Matt Zavadsky

In addition to these findings, MedStar’s experience has been that these facilities often result in an increase in call volume responding to calls at the facility.

In recent conversations with C-Suite members of two health systems that opened FSER’s, both related that their main campus ERs did not see any reduction in ER volume, even though the FSERs saw 15-30 patients/day.

Healthcare is certainly an interesting market. As the author states, one of the only markets where supply creates demand….

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Emergency Costs Went Up When Freestanding ERs Arrived in Texas

10/23/2019| by Will Maddox

When an additional freestanding emergency department (FED) entered a local market in Texas, out-of-pocket costs and emergency provider reimbursement went up 3.6 percent per insured beneficiary, according to Rice University research published this month in American Emergency Medicine.

The study looked at data in four states, but Texas FEDs were especially prolific. The study analyzed 495 Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMA), looking at the number of FEDs in each location and comparing other cost and demographic data. By 2017 there were only 51 PUMAs in Texas without an FED, meaning 74% of PUMAs in Texas had at least one. In Arizona, only 28% of PUMAs had one, 22% in Florida, and 14% in North Carolina had one or more FrEDs.

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