If You Have No Insurance

Come in. If it might be an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. Cost is not a barrier to being medically evaluated in our facilities. Everything else on this page is about the bill, and a bill is a problem with a process behind it. Some of the things an emergency room finds are not.

This is the page most likely to be read by somebody trying to talk themselves out of going. So the most important thing goes first, on its own.

Being uninsured does not stop you being medically evaluated at our facilities. You do not need to arrange anything, prove anything or pay anything before you are assessed.

Now the useful part: what to say, what you are entitled to, and who to talk to.

Say you are self-pay, out loud, at the desk

We have cash pay available, and saying so is the thing that starts it.

It is a normal sentence and it is not an obstacle. “I do not have insurance” or “I am self-pay today” tells the desk which process you belong in. Said early, it saves you a claim being filed against a plan you do not have, which is a bill and three phone calls later.

Said late, it is still fine. You can tell them afterwards, or by phone. None of it expires.

The estimate you are entitled to ask for

This is a federal right and almost nobody uses it. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:

“Usually, if you don’t have or use health insurance, providers must give you a good faith estimate of what your care will cost.”

You get one when you schedule care in advance, or if you ask for one. So asking is a thing you are entitled to do.

And it has teeth. If the final bill exceeds the estimate by $400 or more, you can dispute it.

For an emergency, the order is the other way round — be seen first, ask afterwards. An estimate is for care you have time to arrange, and an emergency is by definition not that.

Talk to the billing team about what you owe

They will work with you on ways to lower what you pay out of pocket. That is the arrangement, in the plainest terms we can put it: ask them, because there is a conversation to be had.

What we are not going to do on this page is list the options, because the specific programmes, their names and who qualifies for what have not been set out for us — and describing something that turns out not to apply to you is worse than telling you to ask.

What is true regardless: asking is normal, the billing team has this conversation daily, and a bill is more negotiable than an unopened envelope suggests. The one outcome with no route out of it is not making the call.

Fountain Hills Emergency Room — (602) 671-7990 El Mirage Emergency Room — (480) 237-4922 Mercy Grace Pediatrics & Primary Care — (480) 745-3702 Fountain Hills Medical Center — Primary Care Clinic — (602) 671-7981

HealthPass

There is a membership programme called Instinctive HealthPass, and it is something you can ask about or sign up for.

It is a membership. It is not insurance, and we are not going to describe it as though it were — it does not work like an insurance policy, and it should not be counted on as one.

Ask at the desk or on the phone for what it currently covers, what it costs and who is eligible. Those terms belong to the programme rather than to this page, and we would rather you got the current answer from somebody who has it than a description here that has gone out of date.

The practical sequence

Be seen. First, and without conditions.

Say you are self-pay at the desk, or afterwards if the moment passed.

Ask what happens next with the bill, and get the phone number and your account reference. The fuller question list is worth two minutes.

Keep the discharge paperwork and write down the date, the facility and what was done.

When the bill arrives, ask for the itemised version before you pay anything.

Then ring and have the conversation. Early is better than late, and late is better than never.

What this page will not tell you

What anything costs. We publish no prices on this site, and we are not going to publish half a price in words.

Whether you qualify for anything. Not ours to guess, and a wrong guess here is the kind that costs somebody money.

What HealthPass covers. Above, and for the same reason.

If a figure matters to a decision you are making about care you have time to arrange, ask for the estimate and say plainly that cost is the issue.

Questions people actually ask

Will I be turned away? No. You do not need insurance to be medically evaluated at our facilities.

Will you ask for payment before treating me? You are assessed on the basis of what is wrong with you. Registration will take your details, which is not the same thing as a condition.

Will this go on my credit? An unpaid medical bill can eventually affect credit, which is precisely why the phone call matters more than the envelope. Ring before it gets that far — and if it already has, ring anyway.

Can I get a discount for paying cash? Cash pay is available and the billing team will work with you on your out-of-pocket cost. What that comes to in your case is a question for them, and we publish no figures here.

I have insurance but I do not want to use it. Then the same estimate right applies — CMS’s wording is “don’t have or use.” Say at the desk that you are self-pay for this visit.

Should I go to a clinic instead to save money? For an emergency, no. For something that can wait, a primary care appointment is a reasonable thing to arrange, and ringing the clinic first is the right order.

I already have a bill I cannot pay. Ring the number on it. That call is the whole of the advice on this page and nothing bad happens because you made it.

What if I think a bill is wrong? Start with the organisation named on it. If it is an emergency bill that looks like it breaks federal rules, CMS runs a free line seven days a week: 1-800-985-3059 — and you can complain about a facility, a provider or an insurer, including us.

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Come in if you need to. Being uninsured does not stop you being medically evaluated. Say you are self-pay, ask what happens next with the bill, and ring the billing team early. Both of our emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year — walk in, no appointment and no referral. Find your nearest emergency room →

Related reading: your rights under the No Surprises Act · what to ask before you are discharged

Sources

7. Medical Bill Rights — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. https://www.cms.gov/medical-bill-rights

This article is general information about being seen without insurance, not advice about your specific situation, and it publishes no cost figures. If it might be an emergency, treat it as one and call 911.