Beware of urgent care clinics

For those of you who have read my blog before, might remember me mentioning how active (i.e. crazy) my little son is. So when the inevitable happened and he knocked a tooth out the socket (and I mean way out), my husband and I were perplexed on how to handle the situation. We decided (just to be safe and considering the amount of blood and crazy new configuration of my son's mouth) to take him to one of those after-hour clinics, figuring it would be cheaper than an emergency room visit.
Big mistake! Skip the fact that we found out later that we should have just bypassed the clinic visit and brought him straight to a dentist the next day (where they pulled his tooth for $195) but we inadvertently went to a "mini-emergency room" so to speak. Needless to say our charges for the doctor doing absolutely nothing, in her own words "There's nothing I can do," were $600!
Talk about a freak out! Now I did manage, through many well-worded e-mails to the powers that be, to get the charges reduced to still unreasonable, yet cheaper levels, but I wanted to pass along this bit of 4-1-1.
I've noticed several after-hours emergency clinics popping up all around our West Houston area. You want my advice if you think you need these services? Check the Web site first. Make sure it's a clinic and not one that offers "emergency-specific treatments and emergency physicians."
Because believe me, even if they do nothing for you, as was the case for us, they will charge you for their "expertise" and their "facility fees." These are the actual terms they used to defend their prices to me.
Just a word to the wise. Check the Web sites first!