BHA 3112 FPX Assessment 2 Consumer Choices and the Healthcare Economy

Consumer Choices and the Healthcare Economy

Student Name

Capella University

BHA FPX3112

Instructor’s Name

Submission Date

Patients’ perceived severity of illness, access to a physician’s office, health insurance policy coverage for the physician visit, and the cost of the visit are all factors that will influence where the patient chooses to seek healthcare treatment when they have an illness. One of the most common choices faced by healthcare consumers is to seek treatment at an urgent care facility or to go to the emergency room (ER). Whether patients seek care in the ER or an urgent care facility has implications for how their health care is provided and the burden of cost on both the consumer and the healthcare provider.

Healthcare spending in the U.S. is significantly impacted by consumer choices to seek care at urgent care instead of the ER, as about 50% of all ER visits are non-emergency care (N. Alaqil et al. 2025). The objective of this assessment is to discuss the decision-making process, review the pros and cons of each option, and review the financial ramifications associated with these healthcare choices for consumers.

Scenario

 I had an abrupt onset of earache, mild fever, and dizziness a year ago. I had all of these symptoms, but none of them were life-threatening, just uncomfortable and made me feel the need to go. I had several factors that influenced my decision on which place to receive care. I took all those things into account- where ER and urgent care were, how much it cost and what I had to pay for, and the wait time- and decided to go to the urgent care facility because I thought that I’d get better care in less time and at a lower cost than at the ER.

Consumer Decision-Making: Urgent Care vs. Emergency Room

Urgent Care vs. Emergency Room. Patients are making decisions regarding their health care based upon the urgency of their medical condition and other factors as they see them, such as cost and convenience. In my case, my first step was to assess how serious my symptoms were to determine whether or not I needed to go to a hospital or an urgent care facility. I wasn’t in any kind of medical emergency; I was able to breathe normally, etc., so I could consider urgent care as an alternative to the ER when I decided it wasn’t necessary.

It is shown that the most important factor affecting patient choice of provider when deciding on a place to receive care is how severe their symptoms are; therefore, most non-emergency cases are referred to urgent care for treatment. Another consideration I made about urgent care vs ER is cost. The cost of a visit to the ER can be much higher than an urgent care visit. The average cost of an ER visit in the U.S. is more than $1,200, compared to an average cost of $100 to $200 for an urgent care visit, depending on the service received (Jeff, 2024).

I went to urgent care instead of the ER to save money, as my insurance is higher and I would have to pay a higher co-pay for going to the ER. Finally, in addition to costing me less money than an ER visit, urgent care patients generally have to wait less than ER patients. If, for instance, you have an ailment that doesn’t amount to a crisis, you could be able to wait for around, say, thirty minutes, rather than several hours in an ER. Patients have numerous benefits for visiting urgent care centers in lieu of traditional medical offices. For instance, they tend to be less expensive than ERs.

They are usually also open when ERs aren’t, for example, on weekends and late-night hours, and typically treat non-life-threatening illnesses or injuries. At an urgent care facility, there may be disadvantages, like not providing high-tech tests like computed tomography (CT) scans or magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs), but they will be able to help you with issues that can be dealt with relatively easily. Additionally, most urgent care facilities have no specialists for more complicated cases, and as a result might have to refer patients to an ER if a patient’s condition deteriorates.

Implications of Consumer Choice on Hospital Economics

The patient who is transferred from the urgent care center to the ER might have already been waiting a considerable amount of time in the urgent care center (Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, 2025). ERs tend to have longer average wait times, higher average costs, may have access to specialists, and are likely to be overcrowded with patients receiving care for non-urgent issues, but they tend to use more advanced imaging tests. Therefore, when I decided on going to an urgent care center, I went for a solution to my health-related issues that would enable me to consider my cost, the ease of care I receive, and ultimately the medical care I need for my health problem.

The economic impact of consumer choice.The impact that comes from having the patient opt to visit an urgent care center rather than the ER has significant financial implications for the hospital and the hospital’s economics. Emergency departments are required by law to have 24/7 emergency staff, as well as advanced medical equipment, and be available for life-threatening emergencies. If patients use the ER for non-life-threatening issues, they are wasting many resources, which are quite costly to run. The data shows that about 30% of ER visits are “avoidable” – and these avoidable ER visits generate billions of dollars in avoidable costs in the healthcare system in general and in hospitals specifically (Strum et al., 2025).

In my specific case, I would certainly select an Urgent Care facility for my non-life-threatening issue, and I wasn’t faced with the greater costs associated with the ER. I avoided the high costs of any facility fees associated with an ER visit, and any of the unnecessary diagnostic tests, which in turn would have created an increase in overall hospital costs without having a positive impact on improving patient care.In addition, urgent care helps to free up resources in the ED by removing non-emergent patients from the department. This will enable the ED staff to better attend to the more serious, urgent, and complex patients and allow for improved patient flow and less congestion in the ED.

Moreover, this enables the hospitals to earn more, as they are reimbursed more for treating a high-intensity patient than a low one. Some studies indicate that this growth in urgent care will lead to an overall rise in the use of the health care system, since many will go to urgent care centers because it is more convenient than going to the emergency department, increasing the total cost of the health care system (Mireles-Romo et al., 2025). However, in this situation where I used urgent care instead of the ED, I found that I was not using the ED when it was not necessary, and that I also was using the healthcare system more efficiently – showing how an individual choice impacts hospital cost, efficiency and service delivery.

Healthcare Economics Before the Existence of Urgent Care

The patients were usually referred to the ER departments of hospitals as there was no other facility for them to go to at night. This led to the emergency departments of hospitals being overloaded with patients with minor issues who were not using the technology and medical staff found in the ER. The studies indicated that 40% of the ER visits were for non-emergency patients and could have been treated at other facilities, which clearly demonstrates that the excessive dependency on ER services as the only source of medical care is an inefficient use of resources (N Alaqil et al., 2025).

This resulted in hospitals using high-cost resources and highly specialized staff and diagnostic equipment for patients with low-level acuity. This caused unwarranted inefficiency and financial strain on the emergency department, because all medical equipment had to be available at all times and a full staff of medical personnel had to be employed to treat all patients – irrespective of their level of acuity of the injury.The healthcare system has imposed an immense burden on both patients and the nation by providing few options for patients to pay and cover healthcare expenses when they fall ill or injured.

A visit to an EM averages $1,500 – $3,000 depending on the severity of the case and services provided to the patient, while a visit to an urgent care center costs between $150 – $250. As such, before the development of the urgent care concept, there were no alternatives for the care of those who needed urgent/acute, but not life-threatening care – hence the excessive overall spend on healthcare and poor/inefficient use of hospital resources. Urgent care centers filled this void by offering a less expensive, more convenient, and less life-threatening alternative to emergency rooms for urgent/acute care. The change in the healthcare delivery system from hospitals to urgent care centers brought greater access to care and decreased unnecessary healthcare costs and the burden on the healthcare system from hospitals.

Conclusion

Your choice of using urgent care centers or the emergency room has an impact on your experiences with healthcare and the economy. There are numerous reasons why this decision is made, including cost, distance, seriousness of the illness, and more. To me, urgent care is timely, affordable, and a very efficient use of the healthcare system. Urgent Care Centers are making it easier for people to receive care and taking the strain out of the emergency department. Finally, an analysis of these choices provides a picture of the interdependence of a person’s health care decision-making and the economic performance of the health care system.