Chronic Pain Support Group

do you have a link for this "article"?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...

you have to subscribe to reAD IT!

Would this "fee" be listed on a pts. bill? I get a "discharge" sheet from my new doc (who is an employee of a hospital system), and it doesn't list it. But then again, the actual fee isn't on there, just my insurance co-pay.
How can I find out if they're charging my insurance? Do I contact my insurance company?

Thanks for the timely post.
Sandy

I hATE THAT SUNNYBUNN

I will not subscribe to something to read articles....but good information backpain1955

MINE HARDLY EVER ANSWER'S THERE PHONE HUGS MINNIE

I also couldn't read the article. And almost all of my doctors are part of a hospital system - have been since I started going to them. I've never had to pay any more than my regular copay, and I have no idea what they're charging my insurance, but my insurance has never given me a problem with paying the bills for them, so I'm not worried about it, as they're great doctors and I'm not even remotely interested in switching.

Here is another article excerpted from McCalls. Not all hospitals have picked up on their ability to scam as of yet, but it is a growing practice. It only applies if the doctors are employees of the hospital, but you may not find this out unless you ask. There will be two separate charges: one for a physician fee and another for a facility fee to pay for the air you are breathing in the doctors office and for the privilege of getting weighed on their scales.

Ken Clauser expected to get a bill from his doctor following a recent check-up. He didn't expect to get a second bill, from the hospital system that runs the building where his doctor has his office.
That bill, from Coordinated Health Hospital of Allentown, was $202, trumping the $135 charged by his physician.
Clauser said that when he called Coordinated Health to ask about the charge, he was told it was a fee for using the hospital facility.
He told me he didn't even know he'd been in a hospital. He hadn't. But you don't have to be in a hospital to be charged a hospital fee anymore. If the facility where you are treated is part of a hospital network, it may charge the fees under federal Medicare rules.
Getting these bills is making people sick nationwide. It has prompted lawsuits in other states and calls for legislation in Pennsylvania.
"It's just another move by many of these hospital systems to generate additional revenue with no justification whatsoever," said state Rep. Dan Frankel, a Pittsburgh-area Democrat. "It adds nothing whatsoever to the quality of care."
Frankel said he intends to introduce legislation banning the fees or requiring them to be disclosed so patients can decide whether to pay them or search for a health provider that doesn't charge them. He says patients also should be offered alternative locations to get treatment where facility fees are not charged.
In a memo to other legislators Frankel said a constituent had a $145, five-minute, skin tag removal in a doctor's office located in a hospital-owned building and was charged a $705 facility fee for "operating room service."
Clauser said Coordinated Health told him the fee covers all sorts of things, such as the scale he was weighed on, the blood pressure equipment he used, the room where the doctor saw him and the clerical staff.
Clauser said his wife, Alma, was charged $40 for having her toenails clipped, and an additional $70 in fees.
"Something is rotten in Denmark when the building fees are nearly double what the physicians get," Clauser, of South Whitehall Township, told me in a letter venting about the charges.
Dr. Emil Diiorio, CEO of Coordinated Health, told me patients are getting something for the fees. He said they cover the expense of the hospital system delivering outpatient services at hospital standards.
"The reason these fees are there is to provide the quality that you are receiving and the safety that you are receiving in these facilities," Diiorio told me. "These facilities that are off-site … they're held to the same high standards."
Not everyone believes the fees are appropriate. In May, a class-action lawsuit was filed against hospitals in St. Louis, alleging their fees weren't disclosed and weren't necessary