<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3dsXwk_1F8c6gvN00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3dsXwk_1F8c6gvN00" width="1174" height="660" >JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WCYB) — Ballad Health is addressing concerns regarding “facility fees.”News 5 viewers had reached out to us about the charges on some of their bills.We inquired about the fees with Ballad Health and received a statement.Ballad says the fees allow hospitals across the country to recover the cost of “providing extraordinary access to care for low-income populations that cannot pay for care.”You can view the full Ballad statement below."There are few health systems in the nation which offer the robust discounts and free care that Ballad Health provides to people who struggle with their cost of healthcare. At a threshold of 225% of the federal poverty level to qualify for free care from Ballad Health, a sizeable number of people in our region take advantage of this access. Combined with presumptive eligibility for access to this service, this policy has led the Commonwealth of Virginia to officially conclude in its reports regarding Ballad Health that our policy is among the more generous in the nation.The issue of “facility fees” is not new and is a long-held policy of the federal government which allows hospitals to recover the costs of providing extraordinary access to care for low-income populations that cannot pay for care. Health systems in Tennessee, from Vanderbilt University Medical Center to most community hospitals, utilize some form of hospital outpatient department billing in order to help offset the costs of serving so many people without insurance coverage. In our region, only 21% of people have commercial health insurance, leaving the overwhelming majority of our patient population covered by either Medicare, Medicaid, or no insurance at all. This payer mix is among the most challenging in the country, necessitating the use of many federally permissible mechanisms to recover the costs of care for the more than 70% of patients for whom our reimbursement is below our cost of care. Programs like hospital outpatient department billing, 340B drug discounts, critical access hospital designation, and others were intended to help hospitals in rural regions where the payer mix is challenging.Over time, it has been argued that these programs have been abused by some hospital systems for which these programs were not designed. Hospitals within the Ballad Health network are among those these federal programs were actually designed to help, and yet Ballad Health has historically been slow to utilize them, or does so very conservatively. For example, while many hospitals have long used hospital outpatient billing very widely, Ballad Health has not done so. Recent changes to the Medicaid program, and expected major cuts to the program under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), necessitate planning for when these cuts occur. As such, Ballad Health is responsibly preparing for these cuts.These debates are ongoing. Meanwhile, while Ballad Health has not historically used these mechanisms to the same degree as other health systems, we do nevertheless find that it is necessary to do so in order to ensure there is enough revenue to cover the costs of care and to provide the capital investment necessary to sustain our hospitals. Patients with commercial health insurance, and patients on Medicaid, are not paying the facility fees. Only those government programs where the policies permit such billing are being billed, and are being billed consistent with the law, the policies, and our own compliance requirements. Further, because Ballad Health’s charity policy permitting free care for people under 225% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is in place, no one under 225% of FPL is paying any facility fee.Finally, it should be noted that the federal cuts to the enhanced premium benefits for the federal exchanges have resulted in a substantial increase in the number of people who are uninsured. Ballad Health has offered a safety net to those people who find themselves uninsured by ensuring they have access to free care if their income is below 225% of the Federal Poverty Level, and deep discounts if their income is up to 450% of the federal poverty level. Few, if any, health systems are this generous with these policies. We are unaware that WCYB has taken an interest in the fact that so many people have lost their insurance, and would welcome reporting about how this is impacting people and their families. We would certainly be happy to share how our policies are providing many of these families with a badly needed safety net. We would also welcome an opportunity to share the story of the more than 12,000 people who have no insurance but, because of Ballad Health’s Appalachian Highlands Care Network, now have access to primary care and our specialty services.The system of financing for hospital care and healthcare services is very complex and intertwined, and cannot be summarized by one method of billing made possible by the government’s own policies."</div></body>

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WCYB) — Ballad Health is addressing concerns regarding “facility fees.”. News 5 viewers had reached out to us about the charges on some of their bills. We inquired about the fees with Ballad Health and received a statement. Ballad says the fees allow hospitals across...

Ballad Health addresses concerns regarding 'facility fees'

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WCYB) — Ballad Health is addressing concerns regarding “facility fees.”. News 5 viewers had reached out to us about the charges on som

Ballad Health addresses concerns regarding 'facility fees'

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