The market forces quietly adding thousands to patient bills

Image credit: rawpixel.com via Magnific. Article by Elisabeth Rosenthal, KFF Health News. CBS News – September 1, 2026.

After a failed round of IVF this year, Anne Hug’s fertility doctor said she had a single polyp in her uterus that should be removed to improve the chance of pregnancy. Hug, a professor of radiology, learned that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says the procedure can be done in a doctor’s office with local numbing. Her doctor referred her to a physician at the same hospital, which is part of a large Ohio health system. That doctor’s plan was to do the procedure in a hospital operating room, with anesthesia administered by an anesthesiologist. Hug balked at the $18,000 estimate. […]

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