Were you charged a ‘facility fee’ on your medical bill?
Your facility fee experience could help us prevent providers from charging unjustified fees to medical bills.
Updated
Tell us about your facility fee bill.
If you’re look like others, you may have noticed a new fee on your doctor’s bill. It might be a facility fee. As hospitals buy up physician practices, specialist groups, or imaging centers, more entities are charging extra hospital-type fees under the new management.
Hospitals claim “facility fees” support their life-saving services such as running an ICU, onsite specialists, or having more bedside nurses. But regular doctor offices and imaging centers don’t offer these services, so why are they charging us for these added costs?
Facility fees add unnecessary costs to our medical bills.
Facility fees range from $15 to thousands of dollars, and we’re seeing them on bills for lower-cost outpatient services.
Patients don’t usually know they will be charged a facility fee until after they get the medical bill. Insurance plans generally don’t cover facility fees when care is provided outside of a hospital. That means patients are stuck owing these unfair charges.
Help us put an end to facility fees by sharing your experience with us.
We’re working to find solutions and prevent these unjustified fees from hurting patients and raising the price of health care. As part of that campaign, we’re collecting stories from people like you who might have gotten an facility fee on your bill.
Share your story about a facility fee you received.
These personal experiences help decision makers understand exactly how this issue impacts their communities. Please use the link above to share your story with us.
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Authors
Patricia Kelmar
Senior Director, Health Care Campaigns, U.S. PIRG Education Fund
Patricia directs the health care campaign work for U.S. PIRG and provides support to our state offices for state-based health initiatives. Her prior roles include senior policy advisor at NJ Health Care Quality Institute, associate state director at AARP New Jersey and consumer advocate at NJPIRG. She was appointed to the Ground Ambulance and Patient Billing Advisory Committee in 2022 and works with patient advocates across the U.S. Patricia enjoys walking along the Potomac River and sharing her love of books with friends and family around the world.
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