We’re launching a brand new project and need your help!

We’re zooming in on charges that are becoming more and more common on our medical bills: facility fees. 

Facility fees are charges tacked onto your bill for visiting a doctor’s office or even for a telehealth visit. 

When we first heard about these fees — from reporter Sarah Kliff in one of our first episodes — it was about them showing up on emergency room bills, where there can be a stronger argument for them: ERs have MRI machines and all kinds of other gear in them. 

But now we’re seeing them all over the place, which doesn’t seem great. 

We want to know how often this happens, and where, and how much we’re being taken for.

And that’s why we need your help. Because there isn’t enough data out there, not enough examples. 

So, if you’ve ever seen a charge for a facility fee on your medical bill — especially for a visit or service that didn’t take place in a hospital — we want to hear from you. 

And we want to hear from anybody you might know. We’ve got a special page set up for folks to share their stories and their medical bills. 

We’ve also posted to all kinds of social media sites, asking folks to chime in. 

If you’re active on one of these networks, would you click on one (or more) of these links and share it with the folks you know?

Instagram | TikTok | Ex-Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

Some states have passed laws trying to rein in facility fees for stuff that doesn’t happen at hospitals. But experts say it’s really hard to tell if health providers are even following those rules. The data officials have access to doesn’t always show whether a visit happened at a hospital, or a doctor’s office, or any of that. 

That’s a big part of why we want to see your bills and hear your stories. 

We’ll be back with more new episodes in a few weeks. 

In the meantime, you can send us other stories and questions here. Or call 724 ARM-N-LEG.

And of course we’d love for you to support this show.