A comment in the original video stated of being charged a “Facility Fee” for a Telemedicine Zoom 9 minute call. Greed. You can click the Watch On YouTube link to see comments.

What are your thoughts?


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gouging and deception

find another doctor

Hospitals are bleeding money having to provide care for all the uninsured and illegals, they're going to try and get this money back by hook or by crook.

quote:

gouging and deception

find another doctor

This is a hospital system doing this. I've mentioned this in other threads, and it even pertains to industries outside of health care.

If the big systems come to town and buy up all of the local practices, then the few that control everything decide to do what they do, then what choice will you have?

Like I said, the world will be a much better place once Amazon and Walmart are our only choices for anything.

^^^^^^^
Correct. Actually Medicare is to blame for these charges. Private Docs cannot bill faciliity fees so it is a way of pushing private Docs out of business.

I have as little interaction with the health care system as possible... but from what I've seen:
The big utilizers are old people (medicare) and poor people (medicaid).

If you have a job you've probably got insurance, but you've also probably got a big deductible and co-pays. The poor people don't have to worry about that.

virtual er visit to other than your insurance provider??

This was a recent podcast topic and article in WSJ

Hospitals Are Adding ‘Facility’ Fees for Routine Care

Greedy US hospitals add billions of dollars in 'facility fees' to routine medical bills with patients charged for using the OFFICE where they meet doctors - as the worst states are revealed

I've been bitten by this recently. I'm 3 weeks post rotator cuff surgery. My employer went to high deductible plans a few years ago. On one hand it's great a I funnel as much money as allowed by law into my HSA. $7,750 for families in 2024.

Unfortunately my deductible is $6,300 per person.

The facility fee for my surgery was $4,950. That does not include the doctor and anesthesiologist. I haven't received all my bills yet. That will pretty much wipe out my contributions for all of 2024.

The surgeons fees are usually reasonable. The anesthesiologist is more due to the malpractice insurance.

There was a room, and staff present for the telemedicine visit.

The reality is, that's a legacy descriptor for the visit charge level-2 exam, not an add on to the telemedicine base-fee. That is the fee. Then the insurance company covered $74, and the patient owes the balance.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Like I said, the world will be a much better place once Amazon and Walmart are our only choices for anything.

Walmart bailed, because getting paid $74 from the insurance company to provide a physician and support staff to a patient, and then chasing the patient for the other $126 isn't their core business. It's ironic, because in the world of value-based reimbursement (being paid by insurance companies to make patients healthy), no one is better positioned to improve diabetes than the peddlers of HFCS candy and snacks (by the pallet).

“Through our experience managing our centers and virtual care offering, we’ve determined this is not a sustainable business model for us,”

https://www.reuters.com/busine...-centers-2024-04-30/

Unfortunately you have to be a medical billing expert to avoid some of this stuff. As the video showed, a change in policy resulted in the new fee being added. No way to know it up front.
Was just at Dr this week. Labcorp hadn't sent my blood work over. Upon investigation they had me under two names causing the confusion. Not sure why because I took a hard copy of the order with the Dr's name on it with me to Labcorp. Anyway, I mentioned that I really disliked the Labcorp experience and the Dr said yes BUT those she has sent to local hospital (which she is associated with) had been billed up to $600 for basic blood test. My Labcorp was $40.