Hospitals Are Adding Billions in 'Facility' Fees for Routine Care

Last edited Fri Mar 29, 2024, 08:15 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/hidden-hospital-fees-cost-patients-hundreds-of-dollars-0024cd95

https://archive.ph/bp2Mc

Hospitals Are Adding Billions in ‘Facility’ Fees for Routine Care
Unsuspecting patients find themselves at the mercy of institutions tacking on the bills
By Melanie Evans
March 25, 2024 5:30 am ET

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Hospitals are adding billions of dollars in facility fees to medical bills for routine care in outpatient centers they own. Once an annoyance, the fees are now pervasive, and in some places they are becoming nearly impossible to avoid, data compiled for The Wall Street Journal show. The fees are spreading as hospitals press on with acquisitions, snapping up medical groups and tacking on the additional charges.

The fees raise prices by hundreds of dollars for widely used and standard medical care, including colonoscopies, mammograms and heart screening.

The added cost isn’t justified, physicians and economists say. Medicare advisers said last year the federal insurer likely overpaid for a sample of services by about $6 billion because of the fees in 2021.

The fees show up on patients’ bills after hospitals snap up clinics and doctors. Hospitals can designate the newly acquired clinics as an extension of their operations, forcing patients to pay the fees to cover costs for the entire hospital.

Fees have grown more pervasive as hospitals have gone on an acquisition tear in recent years, chasing after patients who have more options to get medical care somewhere else. Many hospital systems now get at least half their revenue from patients who aren’t admitted. By one estimate, more than half of doctors work for hospitals.

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13238957/Greedy-hospitals-ad-billions-dollars-facility-fees-routine-medical-bills-patients-charged-using-OFFICE-meet-doctors-worst-states-revealed.html

Greedy US hospitals add billions of dollars in 'facility fees' to routine medical bills with patients charged for using the OFFICE where they meet doctors - as the worst states are revealed
- US hospitals are charging unsuspecting outpatients hundreds of dollars in facility fees to offset the cost of running their central organizations
- Patients across the country whose providers have been bought out by major hospital systems are being punished to the tune of hundreds of dollars per visit
- In states like Ohio, four out of five medical bills sent to the state's largest insurer for heart examines now include a facility fee
By Sophie Mann For Dailymail.Com
Published: 01:58 EDT, 26 March 2024 | Updated: 11:21 EDT, 26 March 2024