Last month, CHIR experts Rachel Swindle and Karen Davenport shared findings from CHIR’s research on state-level facility fee reforms before House and Senate committees of the Maryland General Assembly.
Consumers are facing higher out-of-pocket costs when they receive outpatient care due to hospital “facility fees.” In a post for Health Affairs Forefront, Linda Blumberg and Christine Monahan provide a primer on facility fees, including the trend of hospital consolidation driving these fees and federal policy options to protect consumers from rising costs in outpatient settings.
As hospitals expand and take over outpatient care settings, consumers are facing additional charges in the form of facility fees when they see physicians and other providers. In a new post for Health Affairs Forefront, Christine Monahan and Linda Blumberg detail congressional proposals to reform billing practices that expose consumers to facility fees.
Consumers are increasingly being exposed to a new expense when they seek outpatient medical care: hospital facility fees. In a new report and issue brief supported by West Health, CHIR’s Christine Monahan, Karen Davenport, and Rachel Swindle explore outpatient facility fee billing in the commercial sector, including the impact of these fees on consumers and how states are responding.
As we splashed into summer, CHIR soaked up the latest health policy research along with some rays. In June, we read about trends in coverage and access for LGBT adults, the rise of facility fees, and the out-of-pocket cost burden of mental health care.
The U.S. House of Representatives’ Education & Workforce Committee is considering several bills affecting the affordability and accessibility of employer-sponsored insurance. CHIR’s Sabrina Corlette was invited to testify on these proposals and the state of private insurance generally.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual blog post authors and do not represent the views of Georgetown University, the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, any organization that the author is affiliated with, or the opinions of any other author who publishes on this blog.
