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Walk in "minute clinics" for babies?

ladygeek83ladygeek83 member
in Minnesota Babies
I'm the first time mom of a 4 month old baby and live in Woodbury. Our employer health insurance is switching from copay plans to deductible-only plans next year. I really like our pediatrician and clinic, but from what I have seen in our EOBs, office visits for illness will now be billed at roughly $200 apiece instead of a $20 copay. I would like to keep going to our pediatrician/clinic for checkups, but I was wondering if there was any kind of pediatric "minute clinic" somewhere near me that that takes walk in patents for a lower, flat, advertised fee for typical baby illnesses, such as ear infections. The standard minute clinics only take patients 18 months to 2 years and up. Or, is there a good reason why nothing like this exists, and babies really should continue to visit their usual pediatrician/clinic for illnesses?
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Re: Walk in "minute clinics" for babies?

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    ladygeek83ladygeek83 member
    Our clinic has also started offering walk-in hours too. Sick visits will still be covered, but they now count against the deductible so we have to pay the full cost of each visit until the deductible is met (and after that, coinsurance) instead of a flat copay each time. So starting next year, sick visits are going to get much more expensive for us. I'm a little nervous about that since my 4 month old baby has had two ear infections in the last month, so I was wondering if there were any cheaper places to go to check for an ear infection.
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    MississippiCatfishMississippiCatfish member
    I may be wrong, but I think you would have a hard time finding this. Usually minute clinics hire nurse practitioners - I'm not sure how many see infants? Good luck...insurance problems stink:(
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    MesmrEweMesmrEwe member

    One challenge is sometimes the "cash rate" is different than what the insurance billable rate is...  You might want to check out the Urgency Room next to Rainbow and BN to see what their policy is and rates. 

    One of the big reasons they don't like to see babies younger than the 18mo mark is because they want you to have your ped keep a better eye on them if there's an illness pattern that develops such as the need for tubes, etc.

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    ladygeek83ladygeek83 member

    I have looked at a number of EOB's for various clinic visits, and our "discount" usually isn't much - about 10% to 15%. We have used the Urgency Room for my husband before, and the visits aren't priced much different than sick visits for our baby at his usual clinic.

    MesmrEwe, thanks for the point about seeing your practitioner so they can see patterns.And angieboldt, the point about minute clinics hiring physicians who can't see babies. This is what I was wondering/suspecting. I have no problems continuing to go to our primary clinic, and will continue to do so if it is best for our baby or our only option, but wanted to check if there were any alternatives out there. It is frustrating because part of the reason why our employer says they are offering these new insurance options are so that we will try to seek out cheaper places/alternatives to seek care...kind of hard to do when you have no alternatives for young babies.

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