And if you have no ID? They will not refuse service if my understanding of ER care is correct. Is it? They will attempt to collect, and can send debt collectors if they know who you are I suppose.
But if you have no identification card and don’t tell them your name, then they can’t locate any existing records. Fine if you’ve never been to a doctor before, but if you have a complex medical history or even allergies, I imagine you’d want them to know.
People do occasionally pretend to be someone else when they come to the ER. I know of someone who pretended to be her sister. An lots of people skip out on all kinds of bills.
I also saw an article a few years back about identity theft in the health care arena. It sounded particularly sucky, becouse the insurers (who had already paid the bills) didn’t seem to be to interested in correcting the record for those victims **who had not had **whatever condition the crooks were treated for. So now you go through life with a “heart condition”, according to your insurer.
When my mother worked Cook County Hospital 60-70 years ago, this was normal. Many of their patients changed names to avoid normal outside debts, and would present with a new name and no prior medical history.
These were people using a new name, not just presenting at hospital with a fake name, and whose experience of authority did not lead them to believe that identifying with previous records would be an automatically good thing.
If you have the money?
40 years ago, medical bills did not go into the “collections => litigation => credit report”
Now they do - the very poor are doing the “ER as freebie medical care” - and you may notice that ER’s are closing across the country.
But, if you don’t mind doing your part to kill the local ER, consider this: your credit score takes a hit; if you still don’t pay, there is a judgment. Then a lien or garnishment.
And "“just go for a year out-of-pocket” theory: the hemorrhage trick cost $54,000 for about 10 hours in ER and ICU.
You might get lucky and draw a diagnosis of "cheap drug for first14 months before the $500,000 surgery. Or you might draw the the $500,000 surgery followed by 14 months of cheap drug.
If you are building up a nest egg, medical insurance is really not optional - one bad blow-out on a rocky road will wipe out savings real fast.
I notice there is now a super-cheap option (CA Exchange at least) called “Get Covered” or some such - it is a catastrophic policy for a few pennies a month.
Think of it as must-have 26th birthday present (for those covered under parent’s plan until 26).
I knew a whole lot of people on the margins of society in the USA, apparently ERs in most states will see you without ID or insurance for nearly anything. Even known drug seekers to use this strategy to get unlimited free opiate scripts. I mean they gave fraudulent info for name and SS# and address.
This was not true in the Houston area though, ERs had screeners who made sure you had either insurance or cash before you saw anyone unless you had a real life threatening condition. Stuff like back pain etc did not count, they would turn you away and give you the info on a local urgent care clinic where you could see a nurse practitioner for a few hundred.
Some would not even let you pay cash, insurance or nothing. The reasoning was that once you are seen by a doctor depending on what is found costs can escalate out of your ability to control. Again unless you had a “real” life threatening condition.
I think the particular example is in relation to catastrophic “I need treatment right now” and in that case going to ER without any identifiable way to hit your credit or send you a bill, you’ll be treated and there is nothing to prevent that.