Hospital Charges

SBL Fayette County Hospital & Long Term Care is committed to being transparent about our charges for tests and other healthcare services. The information provided below contains a comprehensive listing of our charges for services provided by the hospital, also known as our charge master. These prices are updated on an annual basis and are subject to change. Price updates throughout the year will not be reflected in the summary and detailed charge listings below.

In determining the cost for your individual upcoming services, we recommend that you please contact our Financial Counselor at 618 283-5140 to request an individualized estimate. The charge master listing is a lengthy and complex document that is not necessarily a useful tool for patients to compare charges between hospitals or to estimate what health care services are going to cost them out of their own pocket. Your own charges and out-of-pocket expenses will depend on the actual patient care services you receive, the terms of your insurance coverage, and/or your eligibility for financial assistance. Please understand that patient estimates are not a guarantee of actual charges. The price estimate is only for the quoted procedure known prior to service and may not include items such as separate physician fees, additional tests or procedures not on the price quote, or for procedures your doctor might add while you are having services performed. Our Financial Counselor will be able to assist you with information regarding payment arrangements and/or financial assistance eligibility.

Independent practitioners providing services at SBL ayette County Hospital & Long Term Care, including but not limited to, surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, and specialty clinic practitioners, bill for their services separately and are responsible for their own participation agreements. Independent practitioners MAY NOT be participating providers in the same insurance plans or networks as the hospital. If you will be receiving services from an independent practitioner, we strongly encourage you to contact your insurance for participating provider information. New practitioners to SBL Fayette County Hospital & Long Term Care may also not be considered participating practitioners until they are approved by each individual insurer’s credentialing department. Furthermore, when new agreements are added, physicians may not be approved as participating at the same time as the agreement effective date. If you are seeing a new practitioner please contact your health insurance plan to inquire as to the practitioner’s participating status.

SBL Fayette County Hospital & Long Term Care’s Price Transparency policy allows the public to view our standard charges in compliance with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) effective January 1, 2019 in a machine readable format on the Internet and update it at least annually. This detailed listing can be viewed at the link below. Again, we encourage patients to contact our Financial Counselor at 618-283-5140 to discuss any questions regarding this price listing.

Price Transparency​

The nationally based Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) developed information to assist patients with better understanding of hospital charges. A copy of both guides are available at the links below.

Understanding Healthcare Prices: A Consumer Guide

Avoiding Surprises in Your Medical Bills: A Guide for Consumers

Illinois hospitals are committed to and working on improving price transparency that will provide the most meaningful and useful information for patients and consumers. It is important to note:

• Federal law requires hospitals set uniform charges (the amount set before any discount) as the starting point for all bills.
• The starting list of charges is the same for every patient. But the charges may vary by patient even though a similar procedure was performed. This may be due to the patient’s medical condition, length of time spent in surgery or recovery, complications requiring unanticipated procedures, kinds of medication needed, etc.
• Illinois hospitals are not paid these charges by patients or health plans.

What does the health plan pay?

• Commercial insurers negotiate discounts with hospitals on behalf of their enrollees and pay hospitals at varying discount levels, but much less than starting charges.
• Medicare and Medicaid pay according to a regulated fee schedule - both pay at much less than what it costs the hospital to provide the service. Medicare and Medicaid pay hospitals based on pre-set rates that can vary among individual hospitals because they may reflect the variation in a hospital’s cost to provide that care, such as trauma, teaching programs, severity of illness and area wages among other things.
• On average, Medicare pays Illinois hospitals only about 90% of what it costs hospitals to provide the care and Medicaid payment is much less.

So How Much Will a Patient Pay?

• Although all bills start with charges, patients without health coverage are protected by Illinois’ groundbreaking legislation, the Hospital Uninsured Patient Discount Act. It causes bills to eligible uninsured patients be either completely written off (free) or have significant discounts applied (bill reduced to 135% of the hospital’s cost). For additional information or details about applying for patient financial assistance, please contact our Financial Counselor at 618 283-5140.
• Patients with health coverage will only pay the deductible, coinsurance or copay required by their health plan. Although hospitals can assist with estimated charge information for the service being sought, the health plan is the best source of information pertaining to what an insured patient will pay.

Hospital Price Transparency: Patient Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How much will I actually have to pay out of pocket?

Patient pays:

• A patient with health insurance needs to pay the deductible, copay and/or coinsurance set by their health plan.
• The financial obligations could differ depending on whether the hospital or physicians are “out-of-network,” meaning the health plan does not have a contract with them. Contact your insurance company to understand what your financial obligations will be.
• A patient without health insurance will discuss financial assistance options available that could include either a complete write-off or a substantial reduction of the charges in accordance with the Illinois Hospital Uninsured Patient Discount Act and the hospital’s financial assistance program.
• Please contact our Financial Counselor at 618-283-5140 for any additional information or questions about applying for financial assistance.

Health insurance plan pays:

• Health plans such as Medicare, Medicaid, workers’ compensation, commercial health insurance, etc., do not pay charges. Instead, they pay a set price that has been predetermined or negotiated in advance.
• The patient only pays the out-of-pocket amounts set by the health plan.

What do the following health insurance terms mean?

• Deductible means the amount the patient needs to pay for healthcare services before the health plan begins to pay. The deductible may not apply to all services.
• Copay means a fixed amount (e.g., $20) the patient pays for a covered healthcare service, such as a physician office visit or prescription.
• Coinsurance means the percentage the patient pays for a covered health service (e.g., 20% of the bill). This is based on the allowed amount for the service. You pay coinsurance plus any deductibles you owe.
• A patient’s specific healthcare plan coverage, including the deductible, copay and coinsurance, varies depending on what plan the patient has. Health plans also have differing networks of hospitals, physicians and other providers that the plan has contracted with. Patients need to contact their health plan for this specific information.

What is the difference between charges, cost and price?

• Total charge is the amount set before any discounts. Hospitals are required by the federal government to utilize uniform charges as the starting point for all bills. The charges are based on what type of care was provided and can differ from patient to patient for similar services, depending on any complications or different treatment provided due to the patient’s health.
• Cost: For a hospital, it is the total expense incurred to provide the healthcare. Hospitals have higher costs to provide care than freestanding or retail providers, even for the same type of service. This is because a hospital is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and needs to have everything necessary available to cover any and all emergencies. Non-hospital healthcare providers can choose when to be available and typically would not provide services that would result in losses. A hospital’s cost of services can vary depending on additional factors such as:
• Types of services it provides since many vital services are provided at a loss;
• Providing medical education programs to train physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals, again provided at a loss;
• More patients with significantly higher levels of illness, yet payment doesn’t cover;
• A disproportionately high number of patients who are on public assistance or uninsured and unable to pay much, if anything, toward the cost of their care.
• Total Price is the amount actually paid to a hospital. Hospitals are paid by health plans and/or patients, but the total amount paid is significantly less than the starting charges.
• On average in 2017 Medicare paid Illinois hospitals only 90% of a hospital’s cost to provide that care and Medicaid pays even less.
• Medicare and Medicaid pay hospitals according to a set fee schedule depending on the service provided, much less than the hospital’s total charge and actually less than their costs.
• Commercial insurers negotiate discounts with hospitals on behalf of their enrollees and pay hospitals at varying discount levels, but much less than starting charges.

How can I use this hospital charge information to compare prices?

• Charge information is not necessarily useful for consumers who are “comparison shopping” between hospitals because the descriptions for a particular service could vary from hospital to hospital and what is included in that description. It is difficult to try to independently compare the charges for a procedure at one facility versus another. An actual procedure is comprised of numerous components from several different departments - room and board, laboratory, other diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, therapies, etc.
• A patient who has the specific insurance codes for services requested, available from their physician, can better gauge charge estimates across hospitals. Ask your physician to provide the technical name of the procedure that has been recommended as well as the specific ICD-10 and CPT codes for service.

Important contact numbers for SBL Fayette County Hospital & Long Term Care Billing and Financial Assistance:

Financial Counselor: 618-283-5140
Revenue Cycle Manager: 618-283-5444