New Hospital Nightmare

Your New Hospital Nightmare: the 'Trauma Fee'

It can add $10K or more to the bill, even for minor injuries

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Stock photo.   (PeopleImages)

Vox takes a deep dive into the scary world of medical bills and focuses on one relatively new component that can result in mind-boggling bills: the "trauma fee."
Hospitals began charging these fees in 2002, and they're supposed to work like so: A medic in the field, say an ambulance driver, radios in to the hospital that a trauma team needs to be readied to care for a seriously injured patient or patients. Once that call is made—medics have wide discretion and generally err on the side of caution by summoning such a team—it can add $10,000 or more to the bill. The story rounds up eye-popping examples:

• A couple visiting from South Korea called an ambulance after their 8-month-old baby fell off the bed and hit his head. Turns out, the boy was fine. He took a nap at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and was given some infant formula before discharge. Because of a "trauma fee" of $15,666, the couple was billed $18,836.
• A motorcyclist racked up a $22,550 trauma fee after a minor accident. He was at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, Calif., for only about a half-hour before being discharged for treatment of a small cut on his head. He received ibuprofen and two staples.

Hospital officials interviewed defend the fee, saying it's expensive to round up a trauma team and treat a patient, even if that treatment ends up being minor. Interestingly, the story quotes the person responsible for inventing the fee for the National Uniform Billing Committee. "To a degree, I feel like I created a monster," says Connie Potter. "Some hospitals are turning this into a cash cow on the backs of patients." Hospitals are supposed to use discretion and downgrade the fee to that of a regular ER visit when appropriate, but many are clearly not. Potter complains that the fees are now often based on the whims of hospital executives rather than on actual costs.