Patients fume over Cleveland Clinic fee; hospital not alone in levying facility charge
Published: 2009-07-04 15:42:25
Author: Diane Suchetka | Plain Dealer | June 15, 2009
Some Cleveland Clinic patients are so mad about a fee that recently began showing up on their outpatient bills that they're complaining to the hospital, their insurance companies, even members of Congress.
In the current economy, they say, the charge is one more expense they can't afford.
The Clinic isn't the only hospital that charges the "facility fee" or "hospital services fee" for doctor visits and other services it provides at its outlying medical centers. MetroHealth Medical Center, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and Lake Health (formerly Lake Hospital System) charge them in some cases, too.
So do hundreds of other hospitals across the country. And they have for years.
Facility fees, as their name implies, help hospitals pay for overhead costs including building maintenance, equipment, supplies, staff salaries, streamlined transfer of records and subsidized care for the poor. The fees vary tremendously, depending on whether a patient gets an injection or has surgery.
Hospitals say they need them to survive.
"If the Cleveland Clinic elected not to have facility fees at all, we wouldn't be able to stay in business," says Steven Glass, the Clinic's chief financial officer, "because we wouldn't be able to recover our costs."
The reason the fees are an issue now is that as of March 1, the Clinic began adding them to bills for outpatient treatment at nine of its 15 family health centers -- in Beachwood, Brunswick, Independence, Lakewood, Lorain, Solon, Strongsville, Westlake and Willoughby Hills.
"These are not new charges, we've been billing them in various locations for years," Clinic spokeswoman Heather Phillips said when asked why the Clinic began charging them March 1 and why only at some facilities.
"Our goal is to have all facilities which meet the legal requirements to serve as provider-based facilities and bill accordingly," she said.
Health-care experts say patients can avoid the fee by choosing doctors in private practice instead of those in hospital-owned practices. Some patients say that's exactly what they're going to do.
"We are looking at our options," says Patricia Frost, whose bill jumped 63 percent.
Frost and other patients might not have complained about the fee, if their health insurance covered all of it. But in many cases it doesn't.
Insurance rules vary, but what often happens is that patients with private insurance end up paying all of the facility fee until they reach their deductible. At the nine Clinic facilities, for example, a person with a $25 co-pay now pays $80 for an office visit because of the $55 facility fee.
Full story
Published: 2009-07-04 15:42:25
Author: Diane Suchetka | Plain Dealer | June 15, 2009
Some Cleveland Clinic patients are so mad about a fee that recently began showing up on their outpatient bills that they're complaining to the hospital, their insurance companies, even members of Congress.
In the current economy, they say, the charge is one more expense they can't afford.
The Clinic isn't the only hospital that charges the "facility fee" or "hospital services fee" for doctor visits and other services it provides at its outlying medical centers. MetroHealth Medical Center, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and Lake Health (formerly Lake Hospital System) charge them in some cases, too.
So do hundreds of other hospitals across the country. And they have for years.
Facility fees, as their name implies, help hospitals pay for overhead costs including building maintenance, equipment, supplies, staff salaries, streamlined transfer of records and subsidized care for the poor. The fees vary tremendously, depending on whether a patient gets an injection or has surgery.
Hospitals say they need them to survive.
"If the Cleveland Clinic elected not to have facility fees at all, we wouldn't be able to stay in business," says Steven Glass, the Clinic's chief financial officer, "because we wouldn't be able to recover our costs."
The reason the fees are an issue now is that as of March 1, the Clinic began adding them to bills for outpatient treatment at nine of its 15 family health centers -- in Beachwood, Brunswick, Independence, Lakewood, Lorain, Solon, Strongsville, Westlake and Willoughby Hills.
"These are not new charges, we've been billing them in various locations for years," Clinic spokeswoman Heather Phillips said when asked why the Clinic began charging them March 1 and why only at some facilities.
"Our goal is to have all facilities which meet the legal requirements to serve as provider-based facilities and bill accordingly," she said.
Health-care experts say patients can avoid the fee by choosing doctors in private practice instead of those in hospital-owned practices. Some patients say that's exactly what they're going to do.
"We are looking at our options," says Patricia Frost, whose bill jumped 63 percent.
Frost and other patients might not have complained about the fee, if their health insurance covered all of it. But in many cases it doesn't.
Insurance rules vary, but what often happens is that patients with private insurance end up paying all of the facility fee until they reach their deductible. At the nine Clinic facilities, for example, a person with a $25 co-pay now pays $80 for an office visit because of the $55 facility fee.
Full story