What is the difference between emergency care, urgent care and routine care?
Emergency care means care received as a result of a bodily injury or serious illness, which threatens loss of life, limb, or senses and requires the member to seek immediate medical attention. Emergencies include heart attacks, hemorrhaging, poisonings, loss of consciousness, and convulsions. Urgent care means care received for a health problem usually marked by the rapid onset of persistent or unusual discomfort associated with an illness or injury. These problems may include high fever, vomiting, sprains, and minor cuts. When in the Lynchburg area, urgent care situations can be handled by contacting the primary care physician, regardless of the time of day or day of the week. When outside of the Lynchburg area, members with urgent care situations may contact their primary care physician or seek care from the nearest available provider and contact Piedmont afterwards. Routine care includes elective services and any other services that are for conditions that are not for emergency care
