Recently a Press of Atlantic City article http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com * noted: “Linda Talotta thought it was a mistake when she received two several-hundred-dollar hospital bills in the mail from AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center earlier this year. She hadn’t been to the hospital. But as Talotta soon learned, it wasn’t a mistake. The charges of more than $400 each were facility fees tacked onto her physician’s appointments at the AtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute in Egg Harbor Township, which is owned by the hospital.”
“Facility fees, also called provider-based billing, are legal and are established in accordance with state and federal billing guidelines created to accommodate the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which recognizes off-campus facilities as an entity of the hospital.”
“Talotta’s facility charges stemmed from two procedural follow-up appointments with a radiologist and an oncologist in January and February at the AtlantiCare institute, the result of a cancer diagnosis and subsequent surgery and treatment in 2012, and neither appointment lasted more than a half hour, she said. The facility fees were in addition to bills she had already received from the cancer center for the visits, which had each included two $209 fees for the specialized physicians.””
“Hospitals are authorized to charge patients a facility fee for its hospital-owned, off-campus physicians offices and care facilities to help cover the cost of running the main hospital infrastructure, including its emergency room and the costs of expensive medical technologies — and hospitals that bill Medicare beneficiaries this way must do so for all other patients…..”
“But as hospitals nationwide continue to buy up independent physician practices and outpatient clinics, facility fees are increasingly becoming a burden on patients, especially since not all private insurers cover the fees.”
”….. anyone who is confused about billing to ask questions of their providers and insurance company before receiving care.”
* to read the full PAC article “Hidden fees mean some patients pay for hospitals they don’t use” by Elisa Lala, highlight and click on open hyperlink http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/hidden-fees-mean-some-patients-pay-for-hospitals-they-don/article_5378d646-fed8-11e3-8d13-001a4bcf887a.html
Doctor, Did You Wash Your Hands? ™ provides information to consumers on understanding, managing and navigating health care options.
Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H., is Clinical Professor, Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Adjunct Professor, Baruch College ( C.U.N.Y.), Rutgers School of Public Health, and Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration.
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