hospital costs

Wesley Chapel will soon have three general hospitals within a five-minute drive, part of a boom unleashed when the state dropped a requirement that companies obtain approval to open new hospitals. Where are they building? What are the effects?

At least eight states have implemented or are considering limits on what patients can be billed for the use of a hospital’s facilities even without having stepped foot in the building.

Hospitals are facing mixed reviews regarding their efforts to comply with a federal requirement that they post information about prices related to nearly every health care service they provide.

Missouri is considering making it a felony to jack up temporary health care staffing prices during a statewide or national emergency. It’s one of at least 14 states looking to reel in travel nurse costs, after many hospitals struggled to pay for needed staffers earlier in the pandemic.

More than 50 consumer and patient groups want the Biden Administration to aggressively protect Americans from medical bills and debt collectors. The effort follows a KHN/NPR investigation.

A family had more than $12,000 in medical bills they couldn't explain after their baby was delivered early. It turns out the doctors who cared for her worked at a different, out-of-network hospital.

Hospitals using volunteers is commonplace. But some labor experts argue that deploying unpaid workers to do tasks that benefits the bottom line lets for-profit facilities skirt federal laws, deprives employees of work, and potentially exploits the volunteers.

The many options — particularly urgent care and free-standing ERs — can make the head spin. The wrong choice can mean big bills and even poor outcomes. Facilities have little incentive to clear up the confusion.

Her sleuthing took over a year but knocked thousands of dollars off the hospital’s charges — and provides a playbook for other consumers.

A New York woman seeking to end a dangerous ectopic pregnancy in a fallopian tube finds the procedure more complicated and expensive than expected — even in a state with liberal abortion laws.