Emergency room costs way up in MA, but lawmakers think it will go down

BOSTON (WWLP) - A new report finds that unnecessary emergency room costs have gone up by more than $100 million, but state lawmakers say that they expect the costs to go down in the future.

A state report finds that emergency room visit costs in Massachusetts went up by about 35%, or nearly $150 million, between fiscal year 2006 and 2010.

The Division of Health Care Finance and Policy report found there were nearly 2.5 million emergency room visits in fiscal 2010, and about half those visits were preventable or avoidable.

The Senate’s Health Care Financing Committee Chairman, Richard Moore, says the state’s new health care law will promote access to primary care doctors and reduce emergency room visits in the future.

“We increased the number of providers who serve as primary care providers … It will allow more urgent care to be done by others and not have to go to the emergency room where it’s much more expensive,” said Moore, an Uxbridge Democrat.

Despite costs going up, the report found that the number of emergency room visits is slowing down.

It suggests that there should be a greater availability of healthcare services to reduce unnecessary costs.