How a simple UTI turns into a $1,756 bill

Thumỹ Phan for STAT

STAT Plus

A STAT Investigation

How a simple UTI turns into a $1,756 bill

A new kind of urgent care is surprising some patients with ER bills

By Tara Bannow

Bannow spoke with patients and reviewed their medical bills to report this story.

Tara covers the business of health care. Her stories focus on hospitals, doctors, and how their business practices affect patients — especially when private equity gets involved. She also writes about health insurance and ideas for improving our broken health system. You can reach Tara on Signal at tarabannow.70.

It was a simple urinary tract infection. A textbook urgent care visit.

Kristin Gills knew the drill. She peed in the cup, and the doctor confirmed her suspicion. He prescribed antibiotics. Before she left Methodist Legacy ER & Urgent Care in Allen, Texas, Gills paid her $211 bill and figured that was the end of it.

Then the real bill came, for another $1,756.

“I was like, ‘What in the world?’ I immediately tried calling them,” she said. When she couldn’t reach anyone, she sent three MyChart messages. Nothing.

So she took to the Internet, posting a negative Google review and writing about her experience in a local Facebook group for moms. Finally, a Methodist representative got back to her and offered a cash-pay discount that brought her balance down to $667. She’s still not paying.

“I’m going to fight it,” Gills said. “This will be the hill I die on.”

The facility Gills visited doubles as both an emergency room and an urgent care clinic. Intuitive Health, the private equity-backed company that runs the hybrid facility and nearly 50 others like it, says they’re great for patients because they prevent them from having to guess whether their conditions are emergencies. But patients told STAT they visited for what they thought were obvious urgent care issues — coughs, congestion, flu symptoms — and were shocked when they got bills for ER care instead, often totaling thousands of dollars.

Tara covers the business of health care. Her stories focus on hospitals, doctors, and how their business practices affect patients — especially when private equity gets involved. She also writes about health insurance and ideas for improving our broken health system. You can reach Tara on Signal at tarabannow.70.

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