Facility fee

What does Facility fee mean on a medical bill?

A facility fee is the hospital's charge for the room, the equipment, and the staff who are not the doctor. It covers the place where care happened, and it is billed separately from the doctor's own fee for the same visit. Two bills for one visit is normal when one is the facility and the other is the physician. It also shows up at clinics a hospital owns, where a routine appointment gets billed as a hospital outpatient visit and costs more than the same appointment down the street.

What does Facility fee usually cost?

It arrives on top of the doctor's fee, not instead of it. The amount depends on how the site is registered rather than on how long you were there, which is why a fifteen minute appointment at a hospital-owned office can carry one.

What should I watch out for with Facility fee?

• Two bills for one visit — confirm one is the facility and the other the doctor, not the same charge twice
• A facility fee on a routine office visit — ask whether the clinic bills as a hospital department
• A facility fee at the emergency room level for care you received without being admitted