Lawmakers are targeting hospital facility fees

BY JOHN INGOLD THE COLORADO SUN

Last year, Diane Kruse and her husband, Kevin, went to visit the doctor.

Kevin needed to get some things checked out with his heart, nothing urgent or out of the ordinary. After looking through their insurance network, they settled on a cardiologist working at a satellite clinic on the National Jewish Health campus in Denver. e visit felt routine — the only piece of equipment the doctor needed to use was a stethoscope.

But it was the bills that came as a surprise.

ey had been prepared to pay a $150 copay to cover the o ce visit. But they also received a second bill for another $150 for “facility and nursing services,” the billing statement read.

Confused, Diane called the National Jewish billing department, thinking she had been mistakenly double-billed.

“ e person checked it out and said, ‘ at’s the hospital,’” Diane recalled. “And I said, ‘We didn’t go to a hospital.’ And they said, ‘Well, that’s the facility fee.’”

What exactly was going on in Diane and Kevin Kruse’s medical bills — what they were charged and why — is now the subject of the biggest