In this file photo emergency room nurses at Memorial Hospital wheel a patient into a trauma room during their shift at the hospital.Editor’s note: This is the fifth in an occasional series on the 10 essential health benefits required by the Affordable Care Act.
As patients, doctors and health analysts look to see how the Affordable Care Act plays out, the emergency room is one of the closely watched stages.
Nationwide, emergency rooms have seen a jump in patients who are newly insured under the law, drawing speculation and debate about whether the law is working as it should.
But seven months after new health insurance options, Chattanooga-area hospital officials say they are still unable to gauge the law’s impact on their emergency rooms.
They are all seeing an increase, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary, they say.