A Colorado hospital has billed a woman $847 for a mere zoom call for seeking consultation for her son.
According to local news source KDVR, a Colorado children’s hospital billed a lady about $850 as a “facility fee” for a telehealth consultation for her 3-year-old child via a “Zoom call.”
“I can tell you right now I would’ve gone elsewhere if they had told me there was an $850 fee, essentially for a Zoom call,” mother Brittany Tesso told KDVR. Tesso acquired the bill from Children’s Hospital Colorado following an initial fee of $676.89 for a two-hour speech therapy test, which she “thought was extreme,” but settled regardless.
“I was like, ‘Facility fee? I didn’t go to your facility. I was at home, and as far as I could tell, some of the doctors were at home too.’ And [a hospital representative] said, ‘Well, we charge the same whether you come to the facility or it’s a telehealth appointment,’” Tesso said, KDVR reported.
Five little monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said “While this may be a telemedicine visit, you will still be charged a hospital facility fee of several hundred dollars.”
“This sounds like essentially gouging, it’s really charging for a facility, i.e., the hospital, which they are not even accessing,” Adam Fox, deputy director at the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, told KDVR.
According to the Denver Business Journal, legislators proposed Colorado Option, a type of state-backed health insurance, in an attempt to supply accessible healthcare to people. Critics of the idea claim that it will concentrate far to much authority in the clutches of state legislators, putting consumers at danger.
“We got a $20 bill for the doctor and then a couple of weeks later we got a second bill for $503,” Micheal Kark told KDVR after taking his 5-year-old son to visit a psychologist for food allergies.
Children’s Hospital Colorado did not acknowledge the $847.35 price in a comment to KDVR, instead claiming that it sought “affordable and accessible care” for all patients.
“This is not exclusively a Children’s Colorado issue, and we suggest that you speak to other providers, insurers, and legislators to provide a broader perspective on the system that governs how we all operate,” the hospital told KDVR. “We want affordable and accessible care for all of our patients, and we continually look at our practices to see where we can adjust and improve while at the same time, we work to build a functioning system of care for kids.”
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