Patients are finding facility fees for visits to doctors
Published: 2010-03-15 16:23:15By: Cheryl Powell | Beacon Journal | February 14, 2010
A quick trip to the doctor could end up costing the same as heading to the hospital.
Patients increasingly are being charged what is known as a ''facility fee'' for services provided at physician practices and clinics owned by hospitals.
These fees are in addition to the amount consumers are charged for physician services, which insured patients often pay as a set co-pay per visit.
Depending on the insurance plan, the facility fees can be subject to a deductible, meaning patients are stuck paying some or all of the unexpected bill.
Bill Rank, 64, of Stow, was outraged when he recently got a bill that included a $425 ''room charge'' for a cortisone injection in his right knee in July at a Crystal Clinic location in Cuyahoga Falls.
He had already paid more than $230 in professional charges after discounts from his insurance last year for the visit, which included X-rays for his other knee.
So when the second bill arrived months later, he called to ask for an explanation.
He said he was told the room charge and other fees totaling $559.14 were billed because the Crystal Clinic became a hospital after a partnership with Summa Health System took effect last year.
Rank said he never faced the additional charges before the ownership change.
''I said, 'I didn't stay overnight,' '' he recalled. ''I was in the doctor's office for half an hour, tops. I've been told that's the room fee for the doctor to give me the injection. It's like a hidden charge to me. This is unseemly.''
Patient fighting charges
He's fighting the charges. But if he's not successful, he'll be on the hook for 20 percent of the bill — or roughly $112 — while his insurance pays the 80 percent.
Rank said he was pleased with the care his doctor provided, but he's disappointed in what he considers excessive fees being charged by the Crystal Clinic.
''I went to a doctor's office,'' Rank said. ''That was my understanding.''
The Crystal Clinic started charging a facility fee when the Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center officially started in May, said Dr. Ronald Suntken, president and chief executive of the Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center.
The center is jointly owned with Summa and integrates the hospital system with the doctor practices, he said.
As a result, he said, the doctors' offices now are considered outpatient hospital facilities and must meet stringent federal and accrediting agency requirements.
''All the costs associated with providing services in the clinic are now the hospital's responsibility,'' Suntken said. ''The hospital must bill to recoup those costs.''