Yes without the chart note we shall live to disagree. I too have observed this coded most frequently as a level 2 however many times the documentation did not support this level, again it comes down to the patient and did the provider adequately document the thought process, simple phayngitis should not be more than an ER level 1, however if the patient presented as possibly more than this but the workup did not reveal anything more serious then I can see a 2 or a 3, however when the poster states no work, then I am assuming a patient that has a sore throat and it is evening or weekend timefram and presents to the ER for what they hope is a script for antibiotics. This is the picture I have given the sparse info provided.
Truely I do not see Obama care "fixing " this scenario at all, until the docs want to have 24 hour offices and on demand appoints, the patient that waits until they can no longer tolerate the symptoms, and in their mind wants to be seen now right now will always be the present to the ER person and then complain about the length of time they wait to be seen.