A little known fact about medical care in almost every city in America. A dirty secret, if you will.
We all know that hospital systems are buying up medical practices.
But what you may not know, is that for billing purposes, once a hospital buys a practice, they can bill that office as being “in the hospital”.
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Example: Doctor A owns a primary care practice, and charges $100 a visit.
The hospital of St. Earnings then buys Doctor A’s practice.
Doctor A still works at this practice, all the staff are the same, and the patients are the same.
Now instead of charging $100 a visit for being at an outpatient clinic, the hospital of St. Earnings can charge $200 for an “in hospital visit”.
The end result is that the billing increase dramatically.
This is happening right now, in almost every city in America.
“But wait I didn’t go to the hospital!”
For billing purposes, you did.
The hospital is everywhere.
If you have a high deductible plan, this may be a major difference for you, as it means that you are receiving the same exact care from the same exact doctor, but are paying twice as much!
Why is it like this?
The hospital systems in this country have a very strong lobby!
