Beware of Children's Hospitals

By Andy Schoonover, CEO CrowdHealth

I’m a dad. I know the scenario all too well. One of my daughters gets hurt so we have to head to the ER. Where do we go? If you live in a metropolitan area you have two choices: go to the local ER or go to Children’s Hospital.

I want the absolute best care for my girls. You do too. Nobody doubts that. However, the question has to be: Am I getting better care at Children’s vs. the local ER?

The answer in 99.9% of the cases is: No, you are not getting better care at Children’s as you would at your local ER. However, if you go to Children’s Hospital you will likely be charged two to three times as much. It is fair to say that if you are receiving the same level of care for twice the price – you are getting ripped off. The value prop doesn’t hold up.

We had an Instagram follower send us a bill this week. It’s from a Children’s Hospital in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. This member got charged $1,000 for a lab you can get for $7 at any lab in town. They used billing code 99285, which is the highest level of complexity and cost $4,000, even though the daughter was just dehydrated (and they knew that upon intake). They charged her another $1,500 for an IV full of salt water. In total – the family is being charged more than $6500 for something that would cost maybe a couple hundred at an urgent care or $1,000 at a local ER.

I say this carefully knowing that there will be blowback. Before I say it, know that I have consulted with several ED (Emergency Department) doctors in a variety of different hospitals. Here is my conclusion:

‍There is no reason to go to a Children’s Hospital ER unless your child has a complex, pre-existing condition that requires a subspecialist.

‍If your child has seen a rheumatologist, pulmonologist, cardiologist or other like specialty and the emergency has something potentially related to that condition,  or has been in a major accident (in which case the ambulance will triage for you), then go to Children’s. Otherwise, go to the local hospital’s ER or an urgent care.

If you are a CrowdHealth member I’m begging you not to go for stitches, fevers, etc. Your local ER, or even better your local urgent care, can take care of these things really well.

As always, my mind can be changed with new information so if you would like to disagree with me please feel free to reach out to docs@joincrowdhealth.com.