7 Tips to Stay Healthy During Cold and Flu Season
This article is updated for the 2024–2025 flu season. By now you’re probably expecting to hear about getting...
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According to a recent report, Illinois has a 33 percent poverty rate with 22 percent of children living in poverty. While this creates many social strains, it also has an impact on how people use and misuse the healthcare system. Higher poverty rates are closely associated with unnecessary emergency room visits, leading to more expensive services and overpopulated hospitals.
While many hope that new healthcare laws will give patients better access to general physicians and urgent care centers, some research shows increasing the number of Medicaid recipients could actually cause more people to visit hospital ERs. The Illinois Policy Institute shows that Medicaid recipients use the ER for preventable conditions about three times as often as people without any insurance.
Over 35 percent of primary care physicians in Illinois do not accept Medicaid. Two-thirds of specialists won't even give appointments to people using Medicaid. With new healthcare laws expanding Medicaid significantly, this situation will further exacerbate the problem of unnecessary ER visits.
Because urgent care centers in Illinois are lower in cost that ERs and require cash payment or co-payment at the time of service, they offer a great alternative for immediate or preventative care for people wishing to avoid hospitals and who have the ability to pay for the services they consume.
Urgent care centers aren’t the only alternative to preventative ER visits or strained physician offices, however. There are a variety of Illinoi walk-in clinics able to see patients for a variety of non-emergent illnesses and injuries, as well as preventative care and immunizations. Specifically, retail clinics, such as those operating within big-box retailers like Walmart or Target or pharmacies like Walgreens or CVS, offer great access points for patients.
The price charged at an urgent care, whether in Illinois or elsewhere, will be based on the location, and there are no actual standard costs between the clinics. Assuming you are paying with cash, you might come across an urgent clinic that charges you $50 while another situated some mile away charges you $100 for the same services. The standard cost in urgent care where insurance cover is not involved ranges from $100 to $125. This price is generally the standard price of a visit before extra services. There are a couple of additional care services that could make your appointment to an urgent care costly including x-rays and lab tests, medications and injections (such as immunization), casting broken bones, as well as stitches and splints. If you have a viable insurance plan in place, the standard pay will be between $20 – 50 depending on your insurance coverage and whether you are in contact with the provider.
Most primary care doctor offices are open during routine work hours, Monday thru Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Conversely, most of the urgent care centers in Illinois are available after hours, on weekends, and many holidays. Typical urgent care hours are 8:00 am to 8:00 pm daily, although location-specific hours may vary.
Historically, urgent care centers were strictly an on-demand, walk-in healthcare service mode. More recently, as consumer behaviors and expectations have evolved, many urgent care clinics have begun offering book ahead visits, allowing consumers to select a same-day or next-day time that works best for their schedule. Use Solv to find a Illinois urgent care center that offers advanced bookings (or appointments) and book online.
Solv allows Illinois residents and visitors to book urgent care visits online with just a few taps. Same-day and next-day visit times are generally available, and you can search for real-time availability clinics.
Solv allows you to find any of the urgent care and walk-in clinics in Illinois, many of which accept most major commercial insurances. Just browse the clinics page to see if your carrier and plan is listed. If you are still unsure, it is best to contact the urgent care center directly for clarification.
Many urgent care centers, including those in Illinois, now offer virtual visits or telemedicine for residents and visitors throughout the state. Virtual urgent care visits are generally booked online whether in advance or on-demand. Clinics that do offer virtual care have a video icon on their profiles.
While it would be easy to provide a list of urgent care centers in and around Illinois, 'best' is a challenging term to qualify. For some consumers, that could mean the closest location whereas other people may prioritize patient reviews, service costs, availability, or whether or not the provider accepts their insurance. With the list of locations above, use the filters provided to narrow the results to find the best urgent care for your needs.
Urgent care is available to assist patients that are looking for immediate, convenient medical care. In that manner, they are similar to an emergency room. The difference, however, is that ERs are meant to treat major, life-threatening injuries and illnesses while urgent care centers manage life’s minor bruises and bumps. In simple terms, an urgent care is seen as a walk-in health center that focuses in offering non-emergent health care conditions, including the treatment of the typical illnesses and injuries such as fractures and sprains, cuts and burns, scrapes, stings and bites, flu and cold symptoms, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and much more. Most urgent care facilities offer both diagnostic and preventive care such as well visits, immunizations, STD testing and annual physicals. For regular visits and check-ups on these clinics, you should expect to pay between $20 and $100. The good thing is that most urgent care clinics will accept major PPOs and insurance cover, Medicare, as well as self-pay in the form of credit cards or cash. Urgent care clinics are located in most parts of the country in various regions to offset emergency room visits and provide a gap in healthcare services. They take patients during all hours of operations, which offer a significant convenience to most people who have and continue to undergo the need for sudden and immediate medical attention.
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