What We Can Tell You About Cost Before You Are Treated

For an emergency, none of this gates anything. If it might be an emergency, call 911 or come in. Cost is not a barrier to being medically evaluated in our facilities. This page is for the question people ask at the desk, and it answers it honestly rather than comfortably.

“How much is this going to cost me?” is a completely reasonable question and it deserves a straight answer rather than a brochure.

Here is the straight answer: three things we can tell you before you are seen, and three that nobody can tell you yet. The second list is the honest part.

Three things we can tell you now

One: you will be medically evaluated regardless of cost. You do not need insurance, a payment method or an arrangement in place to be assessed at our facilities. That is the answer to the question underneath the question, and it does not depend on anything else on this page.

Two: you can be seen as a self-pay patient. Cash pay is available. Say so at the desk — it puts you in the right process from the start. The fuller version.

Three: for an emergency visit, federal law limits what your network status can do to you. Your share is calculated at in-network rates and the facility cannot bill you the difference. What that protection does and does not cover.

Three things nobody can tell you yet, and why

One: what you actually need. This is the real reason and it is worth sitting with. The cost of a visit is driven by what turns out to be wrong with you — whether you need a scan, which scan, whether the laboratory is involved, whether you need treatment or only assessment. Nobody knows that before you are assessed. That is what the assessment is for.

Anyone who quotes you a confident total before examining you is quoting you a guess.

Two: what the visit will be coded at. Emergency visits are assigned a level reflecting the complexity of the workup, and that is determined afterwards, from the record of what was done.

Three: what your plan will do with it. Your share depends on your own deductible, how much of it you have already met this year, your coinsurance and your out-of-pocket maximum. Two people with identical visits and identical plans can owe very different amounts depending on what month it is. Why that happens.

Those three unknowns multiply together. That is the honest reason a number is not available at the desk — not reluctance.

The estimate, and when it is the right tool

If you do not have insurance or are not using it, you can ask for a good faith estimate. CMS:

“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. And if the final bill exceeds the estimate by $400 or more, you can dispute it.

The thing to understand is which situation it fits. An estimate is built for care you have time to arrange — a planned procedure, a scheduled appointment. For an emergency, the sequence is be seen first and sort the money afterwards, because an estimate requires knowing what you need, and that is exactly what is not yet known.

What we publish, and what we do not

We do not publish prices on this site. No list, no ranges, no worked examples. We would rather say that plainly than imply a figure we cannot stand behind.

And we are not going to tell you we are cheaper than anybody else, because that is a comparison nobody here has the evidence to make.

What we will do is tell you who to ask and what to ask them, which is the part that actually works:

Before planned care: ring the facility, give them your plan, say whether cost is the deciding factor, and ask for an estimate if you are self-pay.

Before an emergency: nothing. Come in.

Afterwards: ring whoever is named on the bill. The question list.

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

If cost is genuinely the deciding factor

Then say that, in those words, to whoever you are speaking to. It changes the conversation from a general enquiry into a specific one, and it is not an embarrassing thing to say.

For planned care it opens the estimate route and lets somebody help you sequence things.

For an emergency it does not change what happens next — you are assessed. But saying it early means the billing conversation starts earlier too, and earlier is materially better than after a letter.

Questions people actually ask

Why will nobody just give me a number? Because the number depends on what you need, which is unknown until you are assessed. Not because it is being withheld.

Can you tell me a range? Not on this site. We publish no figures, and a range wide enough to be honest would not help you decide anything.

Can I ask when I arrive? Yes, and expect “not yet” for the total, with a real answer about the process. Ask the desk, not the clinician treating you.

Is it cheaper if I pay at the time? Cash pay is available and the billing team will work with you on your out-of-pocket cost. What that comes to is a question for them.

What if I am quoted something and the bill is higher? If you had a good faith estimate as a self-pay patient and the bill exceeds it by $400 or more, there is a dispute route. Otherwise, ask for an itemised bill and query the difference.

Should I wait until I can afford it? Not for an emergency. That is the decision this page exists to talk you out of. A bill is solvable afterwards. Some of what an emergency room finds is not.

---

What we can tell you: you will be evaluated regardless of cost, you can be self-pay, and federal law limits your network exposure in an emergency. What nobody can tell you yet is what you need. 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: if you have no insurance · your rights under the No Surprises Act

Sources

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

This article describes what is and is not knowable about cost before treatment, 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.