A recent article from Vox led off with the following sentence, “A $5,571 bill to sit in a waiting room, $238 eye drops, and a $60 ibuprofen tell the story of how emergency room visits are squeezing patients.”

The article went on to explain how the cost of an emergency room visit has skyrocketed in recent years with the implementation of “facility fees” by hospitals.

Research has shown that these fees are arbitrary and vary widely from one hospital to another. Facility fees can range from as little as $500 to $3,000 or more and are applied at check-in. This means you could be charged over $3,000 just for sitting in the waiting room.

It is not uncommon for our medical plan to see charges of $5,000 – $7,000 or more for emergency room visits.

There are times a trip to the ER is unavoidable, and we obviously want our missionaries to receive quality care when that is the case.

But experience has shown that many times our missionaries are forced to use the ER for non-emergency conditions simply because they did not know that other options were available.

For a missionary in a strange city, or the middle of nowhere, a hospital emergency room may appear to be the only option. That option ends up costing them a great deal of money and a $100 reduction in benefits because they were not admitted.

Again, in a true emergency we want you to find quality care as quickly as possible. But for those times you find yourself in a new area and are needing care for non-emergency conditions, IMG does have a resource for you.

Your MyIMG webpage gives you the ability to search for in-network providers across the country.

When you login to your MyIMG webpage, you will see a tab in the middle column that says, “Find a Provider.” Click on that tab and on the next page you will see a section that says “PPO Network Search.” Those on the Career Plan will use the First Health Network. Those using TEAM/WIN Plan will use the United Health Care Network.

A few short steps entering provider type and zip code can provide a list of Walk-in Clinics, Critical Care Units (step-down from ER), Medical Supply Stores and a multitude of other providers.

If you have not yet signed up for a MyIMG webpage you can do so by going to: https://www.imglobal.com/member/login

Click on the “Create an Account” and follow the instructions.

If you are interested in more information, below is a link to the article noted in this post. It contains some helpful information on dealing with issues arising from a poor emergency room experience.

https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/12/18/18134825/emergency-room-bills-health-care-costs-america

Fortunately, IMG provides our missionaries and our medical plan some protection from these issues through discount negotiations and line-by-line audits of claims.