Daniel Chang wrote a piece for The Miami Herald on some of the hidden hospital fees that can take patients by surprise – and which insurers don’t necessarily cover.
These hidden fees are coming about because hospital executives have been preparing their institutions for payment reforms they see coming as a result of the Affordable Care Act – particularly the way the law shifts financial risk away from patients, private insurers and government payers, and to the caregivers themselves, namely hospitals, physicians and other providers.
One of the most visible ways that hospitals have been preparing for this shift is that they are buying physician practices and building new outpatient clinics and urgent care centers to assemble teams that can practice integrated medicine and deliver care across a continuum owned and controlled by the hospital.
But as hospitals build these integrated systems and extend their geographic reach, consumers are increasingly encountering fees that are intended to support these new facilities.
