Tags: Cleveland Clinic | facility fees | hospitals | Ohio | outpatient

Some patients who recently used Cleveland Clinic outpatient facilities are upset over new facility fee charges that have recently been added to their bills, according to a report in The Plain Dealer.

Facility fees, which help to cover overhead costs, are commonly used by hospitals across the country; however, Cleveland Clinic patients claim that they were not properly notified of the fees before they were added to their bills.

On March 1, the Cleveland Clinic began adding the fee to outpatient treatment at nine of its 15 family health centers. Officials at the Cleveland Clinic said that the hospital has been charging this fee at other locations for years and are aiming to "have all facilities which meet the legal requirements to serve as provider-based facilities and bill accordingly," according to the report.

Many insurance companies of patients who received the new charge do not cover all of the fee, and in some cases, copays jumped from $25 to $80, owing to the $55 facility fee, according to the report. Other patients are upset because they say they never received an explanation of the fee, in spite of 200,000 notices sent out by the Cleveland Clinic.

According to the report, the facility fees are necessary parts of a hospital's income, and the charges may be necessary so that the hospital can receive reimbursement for overhead costs from Medicare.

The Cleveland Clinic suggests that patients talk to their insurance companies to find out why the facility wasn't covered. Healthcare experts also say that patients can avoid the fee by choosing doctors in private practice, according to the report.

Read the Plain Dealer's report on the dispute over Cleveland Clinic facility fees.