1 /5 Leah: I want to tell this story to caution people of Rochester Regional Health’s misleading and predatory practices. On May 7, 2024 I visited the RRH urgent care at the Batavia medical campus because I had something in my eye and was unable to get it out. I had never dealt with RRH before but they were the only urgent care open and I didn’t want to go to the ER.
I was there for maybe 30 minutes start to finish. The PA put a couple drops in my eye to numb it and then looked under the lid and quickly found the offending object and removed it with a cotton swab. He put more drops in and did a quick check to verify no damage to my cornea. I was relieved and was on my way.
Fast forward to receiving the bill. I was billed $400 for the clinic visit, which I expected. What I didn’t expect was the fact that I was billed another $538 for an emergency room procedure. I assumed this must be a mistake because how could they possibly bill almost $1000 for a 30 minute urgent care visit.
After several phone calls and one person having the audacity to tell me “I shouldn’t treat urgent care like your primary care doctor”, I was finally told this is their standard billing practice. That’s right, their standard practice is to charge for the urgent care visit and then any procedure, diagnostic test, or lab service done at that urgent care will be billed at the same rate as the ER. I even asked the woman in billing to confirm if I went to their urgent care and had an x-ray if I would be billed the same rates for the x-ray as I would be in the ER and she confirmed this was their standard billing practice.
If you notice their website specifically says “urgent care fees and copays are typically lower than those charged by emergency rooms”. This is an absolute LIE. RRH’s practices are predatory and people should be warned. I urge you if you need to visit an urgent care do not go to one operated by RRH as you will be billed the same as you would if you visited the ER.
