Frequently Asked Questions

Urgent care is the treatment of acute or chronic illnesses or injuries that pose no immediate threat to life or limb. Examples include common colds, flu, strep throat, sprains, and minor cuts. Emergency care is the treatment of illnesses or injuries that are potentially threatening to life or limb. These conditions require immediate attention while urgent conditions, though serious, are less time sensitive. Examples of emergency conditions include persistent or severe chest pain, abdominal pain or blockages, complex fractures, and deep wounds or profuse bleeding. Learn more about urgent care vs. emergency care services.

No. Before treatment begins, the physician evaluating your condition will let you know the nature of care that you’ll be receiving. This will include whether your treatment is considered medically urgent or emergent. With regard to emergency care, we will require a formal acknowledgment of the tests and treatments that we’re providing. (If you’re unable to respond, we will consult with a family member, living will/advance directive, or another person who accompanied you to our facility and is able to speak on your behalf.) We do this to ensure that you are fully informed of all the tests and procedures that you’ll be undergoing at Baptist Health ER & Urgent Care or one of our sister facilities, if you are transferred.

The clinic’s urgent-care operations are open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. We are a walk-in facility; no appointments are required. Our full-service emergency room is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Research suggests that the great majority of patients requiring urgent rather than emergency care seek out help during normal daylight hours. We focus our attention afterhours on true medical emergencies, which by definition can’t wait until the next business day for treatment. 

Yes, that possibility exists. Once your condition is stabilized, it might make more sense for your future care to be provided in a different location, for example, our sister facility in Southern Indiana, Baptist Health Floyd, which is a full-service medical and surgical hospital. Of course, you will never be transferred to a new location without your prior knowledge and consent.

Yes, in both cases. We are an in-network provider for many of the major health plans operating in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. We also accept Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.

Back or balance billing is the practice by some medical providers of billing patients for amounts not covered by their healthcare plan, sometimes in conflict with the contract they’ve signed with the insurer. Baptist Health ER & Urgent Care never back bills patients for amounts in excess of those paid to us by healthcare plans with whom we’ve contracted to provide urgent-care services. Likewise, there is no back billing associated with the provision of emergency-room services, which are always treated as in-network by Kentucky and Indiana state law. (Patients will still be liable to pay any out-of-pocket amounts as designated by their healthcare plan.)

Emergency-room facilities are more capital-intensive and therefore cost more than the provision of urgent-care services. However, hybrid facilities like ours tend historically to bill out 70 percent or more of all services as less-expensive urgent care. At Baptist Health ER & Urgent Care, we are committed to providing only the level of care that you need to get better – no more and no less. We will not “up-sell” you on emergency-room treatments if urgent-care services would be less costly but also medically just as effective. 

Healthcare plans, including Medicare, define a new patient as anyone seeking care for the first time at a physician office or urgent-care facility. Charges for a new patient often run a little higher than those for subsequent visits, due to the administrative cost of setting up a new-patient account. Established patients are those who have received services at some point during the last three years. Established-patient charges for equivalent services tend to run a little lower than those for new patients.

Your charges for a visit to our ER & Urgent Care depend on the services received and the level of care you need. If your care is determined to be an emergency and you are treated as such, you will be billed for those services under emergency charges. If your care falls under the urgent care level of service you will be billed as if you went to an urgent care. Your healthcare plan negotiates rates on your behalf with providers such as Baptist Health and agrees on rates which they see as reflective of the value received by their members. Factors that go into the determination of rates include accessibility, provider quality, and patient experience. 

An Explanation of Benefits, or EOB, is a communication from the insurance company that outlines the reimbursements and amounts of coverage available for services from a medical provider, either in- or out-of-network. An EOB is not a bill; rather it lets you know what to expect in terms of your benefits coverage. It may or may not correspond to the bill you receive from Baptist Health ER & Urgent Care. Because there is no obligation to “pay” an EOB, we recommend setting it aside and waiting until you’ve received our invoice to understand your financial liability. If you have questions regarding your bill, we will be glad to answer them.

Being in-network means that Baptist Health ER & Urgent Care has signed a contract with the health plan to accept its reimbursements for covered services as payment in full. Out-of-network means that no such agreement has been reached. Because we are in-network with many of the major health plans, you’ll enjoy a higher level of benefits without the risk of “back or balance billing” when receiving urgent care from Baptist Health ER & Urgent Care.

Emergency care is handled differently. State laws in Indiana and Kentucky require that all services provided for genuine medical emergencies be treated as in-network expenses. This means that you’ll receive in-network levels of coverage, without the risk of back or balance billing, for any emergency-room services provided by Baptist Health ER & Urgent Care.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your invoice, we are happy to help you make sure that it is correct. For example, we can assist you in appealing a particular reimbursement 812.542.4642.