Hey all, Recently my wife went to see a maternal fetal medicine doc. She paid her $25 copay. Maternal office calls back and says, yes, you paid your co-pay but you owe the hospital $25. I called IBX and there is nothing pending. Bullshit? Experiences?
Few years ago I had to see a specialist about a knee problem, there was a copay charge to see him plus an additional charge for the hospital his office was in. Seems like as he wasn't officially employed by the hospital (as most doctors don't appear to be) they charge "rent" for his space in the building. Bit much when on top of everything else the hospital charges you for just walking through the door.
Well, yeah, but Im looking for a bit more information on how to combat it. Id like to know the name of this practice, putting a fee ontop of a copay and how to legally address it if needed.
If the doc is regarded as an independent contractor by the hospital I don't see how they can not get away with charging a "rental" fee for his office. My wife went to the same hospital for a specialist visit a couple of years before me and it wasn't the case then. I've heard it's done at the other hospital local to us too, seems to be creeping in everywhere now.
It’s a “facility fee” and most hospitals are trying to do this, including Duke, where I work. I went to see my primary care physician about 3 years ago, and like you, I paid my co-pay and then received another bill from the hospital for the “facility fee”. I called up customer service about 4-5 times raising holy hell and they finally dropped the extra charge. Took a good while to get it accomplished but to me it was worth $100 of my time to save the $25. It was a matter of principle to me. Good luck!
American health care is "improving" all the time since about 2010. Hospitals and Insurance companies are looking for new and creative ways to generate revenue and claim their not making a profit all the time.
Ahhh universal healthcare... literally the ONLY political issue that almost everyone across the board wants, that none of their representatives on either side of the isle will vote for because they're all pieces of shit (except like 2 of them). god bless you America! Thanks insurance lobby! We love youuuuuuuu! (also, to answer your question, I dunno about 2 copays, and different states do different things, but often you get individual bills from each of the components of a hospital visit... doctor, hospital facility, anesthesia, ambulance if you took one there, etc... so you'll get a bunch of bills until you meet your deductible for the year. enjoy.) - guy who did hospital finance for 8 years before his current gig.
We all have our hills that we die on acknowledging that it's irrational to die on them. That being said, as annoyed as it would get me to pay it there's no $25 hill I'm dying on.
I like you, Kane, but this small hill shit that people wont fight on become mountains later on AND THEN people wonder how it got out of control....... and shit
We have had good luck just ignoring that stuff till it goes away or else calling the billing department and harrassing them for details, dates, etc. After a while bills stopped coming and we never had any issues with collections. YMMV. As far as Universal Health Care goes, be careful what you wish for. My experience was that my health care improved immensely when we moved from Canada and Universal Health Care to the US 16ish years ago. Every time the government stepped in to "improve" the system I ended up paying more for a shittier product. I am not sure putting the people who made the system worse every time they tried to improve it in full control is the answer...
Jon, I'm with you - it's just a matter of time/convenience vs how much it pisses me off. I fully back you going HAM on these numbnuts sending you the bill
We will probably will wind up paying it. But that facility fee wasnt clearly posted as a service charge in the office and thats shady as fuck. Like AG's office shady as fuck.