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Kaiser’s New Billing Trick | Seattle News
Starting September 17th, Kaiser Permanente’s Capitol Hill Medical Center is reclassifying routine visits—like sprains and minor cuts—as emergency room visits, hiking copays and deductibles for patients. This isn’t an isolated move: major health systems across the region are doing the same, turning outpatient clinics into hospital departments to justify higher billing. Critics call it a cash grab, especially hard on Medicaid patients who often can’t access affordable alternatives. Meanwhile, federal lawmakers are debating “site-neutral” payment reforms to cap costs by service, not…
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