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The Emergicenter: Has its Time Arrived?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

Miles J. Zaremski  and
Darryl M. Fohrman
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Extract

Skyrocketing health care costs are endemic during inflationary periods, affecting not only health care consumers, but also health care providers. Virtually all governmental policymakers recognize spiraling health care costs, but hospital costs continue to escalate faster than the general rate of inflation. In response, alternatives to the traditional physician-patient and hospital-patient relationships have experienced a dramatic resurgence in the last decade, competing for the health care dollar. Two health care alternatives, the health maintenance organizstion (HMO) and the ambulatory surgical center (surgicenter) at which minor surgical procedures can be performed on an out-patient basis. have emerged to provide health care services in a more cost-efficient manner, thereby increasing price competition in the health care sector. The most recent alternative health care system on the health care horizon is the free standing emergency center or “emergicenter.” The growth of these emergicenters within the last few years has heen dramatic—500 in existence as of March 1982.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1983 , pp. 4 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

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References

Those Sky High Health Costs, Time Magazine 120(2): 54 (July 12, 1982). Nearly 10 percent of the United States gross national product is now spent on some sort of medical care, compared with 5.4 percent in 1960. Medical charges jumped a record 12.5 percent in 1981, the largest gain for any major consumer item. Id. at 55. The personal health care bill for the nation totaled $218 billion in 1980. Big Changes Ahead in How We Buy Health Care, Changing Times 36: 60 (March 1982) [hereinafter referred to as Big Changes].Google Scholar
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