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Did your doctor's office charge you a 'facility fee'? Here's what to know.
These are capricious and arbitrary junk fees hospital systems are tacking on to doctor office visits, even if you never were in the hospital. Likely a result of private equity sucking up all the hospital systems in the US to squeeze money out of them and their patients.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/facility-fees-what-patients-know-doctors-appointment-hospital-visit-rcna220193
Across the country, patients are expressing frustration about “facility fees” — charges that a wide range of hospital systems add to bills for appointments at facilities they own, including doctors’ offices offering routine care.
Hospitals can charge facility fees even when a patient hasn’t set foot in a hospital. More than a dozen patients who expected their insurance to cover most of the cost of their appointments at outpatient doctors’ offices told NBC News they were blindsided by the fees, which are billed on top of the cost of seeing medical providers and can easily run into the hundreds of dollars.
The charges have become more prevalent in recent years as more physicians are employed by hospitals and as insurance plans leave patients paying more for care before their coverage kicks in. In some communities, there is so much health care consolidation that it’s hard to find practices that don’t charge facility fees.
Researchers say patchwork laws to regulate the fees haven’t kept up.
“In most states and situations, there aren’t really limits on how high they can go,” said Christine Monahan, an assistant research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, who has studied facility fees.
Hospitals can charge facility fees even when a patient hasn’t set foot in a hospital. More than a dozen patients who expected their insurance to cover most of the cost of their appointments at outpatient doctors’ offices told NBC News they were blindsided by the fees, which are billed on top of the cost of seeing medical providers and can easily run into the hundreds of dollars.
The charges have become more prevalent in recent years as more physicians are employed by hospitals and as insurance plans leave patients paying more for care before their coverage kicks in. In some communities, there is so much health care consolidation that it’s hard to find practices that don’t charge facility fees.
Researchers say patchwork laws to regulate the fees haven’t kept up.
“In most states and situations, there aren’t really limits on how high they can go,” said Christine Monahan, an assistant research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, who has studied facility fees.
MORE at link: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/facility-fees-what-patients-know-doctors-appointment-hospital-visit-rcna220193
It wouldn't hurt to contact your state reps if these junk fees are legal in your state. Ask them to make them ILLEGAL.