NATIONWIDE -- The Health Care Cost Institute says emergency room visits averaged more than $1,900 in 2016, that's up more than 31 percent from 2012.

The institute says the hike was driven almost entirely by an increase in the prices charged by hospitals and also due to emergency rooms seeing a greater number of patients with more severe medical problems.

A professor at the University of California, San Francisco says more emergency rooms now have access to advanced and pricey technology. Plus, patients want to have tests done in the emergency room rather than waiting to go to a lab or doctor's office after they are discharged.