…until morale improves.
The “Affordable” (Affordable! Affordable! Affordable! 00:35:12) Care Act is causing yet another distortion in our health sector that’s making care even more unaffordable for patients.
We wrote earlier about the massive consolidation in the health sector that was accelerated by the ACA. Now we have another example of how these conglomerates are harming patients by charging add-on fees to pay for hospital overhead when they visit their doctors’ offices.
And patients are charged even when they didn’t set foot in the hospital.
The Wall Street Journal gives us examples in “Hospitals are adding billions in ‘facility’ fees for routine care.”
“Tim Ebel’s visit with an ear, nose and throat specialist at an Ohio clinic last October came to $348. At the same time, he got a second bill for $645,” the Journal reports.
“The hospital system that owns the Avon, Ohio, clinic had charged him separately for use of the office where he met his physician. It is what is known as a facility fee, which included overhead for the system’s hospitals though Ebel hadn’t set foot in one.
“His wife, Kelly Ebel, tried to get the system, University Hospitals, to waive or mark down the fee. It refused.”
The Journal reports that hospitals are adding billions of dollars in facility fees to medical bills for routine care in the outpatient centers and doctors’ practices they now own. This added an estimated $6 billion in charges in 2021, including for diagnostic services like colonoscopies and mammograms.
This is enabled at least partly because so many physicians have sold their practices to hospitals. Covid accelerated the consolidation. By 2021, nearly 70% of U.S. physicians were employed by a hospital or corporate entity.
If your doctor’s practice has been purchased by a hospital system, the billing department can add another charge for your visit to his or her office to underwrite the costs of running the hospitals, including neonatal care, trauma centers, neurosurgery, expensive diagnostic equipment, etc., and regulatory compliance. Apparently the 30%+ of our nation’s health spending that is paid directly to hospitals isn’t enough.
Many patients complain about the added charges. Few win. Matthew Burin is an exception. He was billed $750 by an orthopedic clinic to treat his son’s broken arm. The total included a $400 facility fee for Children’s Hospital Colorado. He disputed it and won. Some states, like Indiana, are banning the practice and others, like Colorado, soon will require plans to disclose the fees before treatment.
The extra charge may show up separately or it may be rolled into the bill. Your co-payment may not change, but your premiums certainly will. Thank you, Obamacare, for this unintended consequence of the law that is accelerating health cost increases.
To end on a positive note: We have long been a fan of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, a physician-owned hospital that has transparent pricing, with surgery, anesthesiology, follow-up care, surgeon’s fees, and the facility fee in one comprehensive price, according to the center’s website.
That’s what happens when patients are able to shop for the best surgeons at the best prices to get the treatment they need.