With the announcement that Hunt Regional Healthcare will close its freestanding emergency departments in Commerce and Quinlan on September 30, attention is turning to what happens when residents in those towns need urgent care.
Without a local ER, Hunt County EMS will continue to transport trauma patients to Greenville or to other hospitals depending on severity. For residents in Quinlan, that means a roughly 12-mile ride to Greenville. But those ambulance trips aren’t free, and the bills can be steep.
National data show that basic life support ambulance transports can run from around $900 to more than $1,500 before insurance, while advanced life support trips — requiring more interventions — can easily top $2,000. Local fee schedules often include a base rate plus mileage charges, along with additional fees for supplies or oxygen. For an uninsured patient, even a short trip from Quinlan to Greenville could produce a bill approaching or exceeding four figures.
Hunt Regional’s ambulance provider, AMR, does operate a “Compassionate Care Program” that can forgive or reduce bills for patients who demonstrate financial hardship. But the fine print reveals that relief is often limited to those who can quickly pull together a tax return, proof of income or unemployment, bank statements, and medical expense records — all within ten business days of the incident. That requirement means the people most likely to succeed are not only those with low incomes, but also those whose lives are organized enough to produce a thick stack of paperwork immediately after the kind of medical crisis that led to an ambulance ride in the first place.
The combination of longer trips for emergency care and potentially higher costs underscores the ripple effects of closing the Commerce and Quinlan ERs. Hunt County residents, including thousands of students at East Texas A&M University, will face longer waits for emergency treatment. For those who need an ambulance, the journey to Greenville now comes with both added time — and added financial risk.
