\n\tCaresse Jackman, InvestigateTV<\/span><\/p>\n

For five years, Caren Blanzy received the same treatment at the same medical office in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The regular injections gave her relief from involuntary muscle contractions caused by a neurological disorder, she said. Her insurance picked up the tab.<\/p>\n

Then, the health system that owns her doctor\u2019s office changed how it billed for her treatment \u2014 no longer coding it as an office visit, but instead as outpatient hospital services.<\/p>\n

That change meant Blanzy owed more than $1,100 for one treatment. She said she stopped receiving injections because she could no longer afford them.<\/p>\n

In this installment of InvestigateTV and KFF Health News\u2019 \u201cCostly Care\u201d series, Caresse Jackman, a national consumer investigative reporter at InvestigateTV, digs into ways that health systems can charge hospital prices for doctor\u2019s office care. This report explores how that care may look no different to the patient \u2014 other than the cost.<\/p>\n

Jackman\u2019s story features an interview with Elisabeth Rosenthal, KFF Health News\u2019 senior contributing editor. \u201cWe see this over and over again, the rebranding of doctor\u2019s offices, of outpatient clinics as hospitals for the purpose of billing,\u201d Rosenthal said.<\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n
This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
We encourage organizations to republish our content, free of charge. Here\u2019s what we ask:<\/p>\n
You must credit us as the original publisher, with a hyperlink to our kffhealthnews.org site. If possible, please include the original author(s) and KFF Health News\u201d in the byline. Please preserve the hyperlinks in the story.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to note, not everything on kffhealthnews.org is available for republishing. If a story is labeled \u201cAll Rights Reserved,\u201d we cannot grant permission to republish that item.<\/p>\n
Have questions? Let us know at KHNHelp@kff.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caresse Jackman, InvestigateTV For five years, Caren Blanzy received the same treatment at the same medical office in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The regular injections gave her relief from involuntary muscle contractions caused by a neurological disorder, she said. Her insurance picked up the tab. Then, the health system that owns her doctor\u2019s office changed how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3161,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions\/3161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}