I had a visit from this lovely cardinal yesterday.

Have you ever heard of a facility use fee? We ran up against one this week.

My husband had an appointment with an orthopedic doctor. The appointment was for a shot of cortisone in the knee. He asked if he could go to the doctor’s office but was told by staff that it had to be at a surgery center.

He wondered why, but was told that’s where procedures were done.

Then he got a text message from the doctor’s office that our deductible wasn’t met and it would be $1,600 for facility use. It was another $65 for the doctor and shot.

Of course my husband questioned this. But he went ahead with the appointment thinking there might be more happening than what he was expecting. Like maybe they needed a scope or an MRI, or something.

He said at the center there was an anesthesiologist, they put a bracelet on him like you’d get at a hospital. They wanted him in a hospital gown and there were four nurses in attendance. My husband lifted the leg of his sweats for the shot and refused the hospital gown. The anesthesiologist had nothing to do and stood oddly by.

I talked to a friend of mine who said they ran into the same thing for her husband when he was getting a cortisone shot.

Of course we’re fighting the fee, but be forewarned that it’s becoming a common practice.

Here’s a snippet from Consumer Reports:

When Dan Sokol saw an orthopedist for shoulder pain in January 2018, he got an X-ray and then a cortisone shot to treat what the doctor said was bursitis. It all took less than 30 minutes at the doctor’s office, and his shoulder pain went away.

So a few weeks later when Sokol, a 61-year-old bank credit officer who lives in Los Angeles, got a bill with more than $3,000 in charges from Cedars Sinai Medical Center, a hospital near his doctor’s office, he was sure there was a mistake.

https://www.consumerreports.org/fees-billing/surprise-hospital-fee-just-for-seeing-a-doctor-facility-fee/

Have you heard of a facility use fee before? Have you ever been charged one?