Not-for-profit price gouging

• Main Author: Robbins RA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arizona Thoracic Society 2019-10-01
• Series: Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care
• Subjects: Henry Ford Hospital; facility fee; price gouging; not for profit; Medicaid disproportionate share; CEO salary; mission statement; profit; poor; hospital charges
• Online Access: http://www.swjpcc.com/editorials/2019/10/7/not-for-profit-price-gouging.html

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. Kaiser Health News reports the case of Brianna Snitchler (1). She had a visible cyst on her abdomen which was biopsied using ultrasound as an outpatient at Henry Ford Health System’s main hospital. The cyst was found to be benign, but she received a $3,357.52 bill for her biopsy, ultrasound, lab tests and physician charges but the bill also included a $2,170 additional charge. Although the initial bill from Henry Ford referred to “operating room services”, Ford later sent an itemized bill that referred to the charge for a treatment room in the radiology department. Both descriptions boil down to a facility fee, a common charge that has become controversial as hospitals search for additional streams of income, and as more patients complain to have been blindsided by these fees. David Olejarz, manager of the media relations department of Henry Ford, said the “procedure was performed in the Interventional Radiology …