A Wall Street Journal article describes a phenomenon that many health care consumers have painfully discovered.
Hospital systems buy up medical practices and other health care facilities. Then, customers learn they must pay a “facility fee” they previously did not have to pay. That adds substantially to out-of-pocket charges. (HT: NCMS)
These corrupt hospital systems– i.e., nearly all of them– covet the formation of monopolies for the provision of nearly all kinds of medical care. Then, they can dictate their terms with insurers and other payers, and run away with enormous profits so that administrators can receive lavish salaries.
The public is no longer being well served because their choices have been wrestled away from them, and competition is vanishing. And they are being extorted.
I guess I am fortunate in that I have never knowingly been charged a “Facility Fee”
I had two hospital stays between 2021 an 2023.
It is just one example, Fred, of the steady stream of abuses that are mounting. Something needs to be done to protect the public from the damage they are inflicting, but unfortunately, as we have learned in North Carolina, they own most of the politicians.