When patients face excruciating pain, sometimes their only option is an emergency room. But ER visits are becoming increasingly expensive due to facility fees, according to a Vox analysis.
Here are seven things to know.
1. The analysis is part of yearlong healthcare pricing investigation by Vox Media Senior Correspondent Sarah Kliff. Ms. Kliff initially focused on ER facility fees.
2. Facility fees do not include the cost of care rendered but rather the cost of seeking service at that location. Depending on insurance coverage, a patient could potentially be on the hook for hundreds or thousands of dollars in ER facility fees.
3. For the analysis, Vox and nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute worked together to examine 70 million ER claims from between 2009 and 2015. Ms. Kliff notes the analysis looked at the amount plans paid hospitals for facility fees.
4. The analysis found the price of ER facility fees overall rose 89 percent during the studied time period.
5. The analysis also found overall spending on ER facility fees increased by more than $3 billion between 2009 and 2015. But at the same time, the number of ER fees billed in that same time period fell by 2 percent, according to Vox.
6. Additionally, Ms. Kliff writes, hospitals are increasingly using the most costly four- and five-level billing codes for ER visits. The analysis found the percentage of ER facility fee charges for these codes went from 50 percent in 2009 to 59 percent in 2015.
7. Hospital and emergency billing experts have different takes on the ER facility fees issue. According to Vox, hospitals cite an aging, sicker population as reasoning behind these increases, while emergency billing experts contend the analysis shows hospitals use their market power in charging high facility fees and passing on costs to patients, who may not have another option on nights and weekends.
Read the full Vox report, including more about the analysis, here.
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