CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Clinic announced beginning Nov. 17 it is billing some services offered through its MyChart platform.

Thomas Campanella, a health care executive at Baldwin Wallace University, explained why he believes the clinic is taking that action.

What You Need To Know

  • Ohio hospitals are potentially looking to bill patients that use their online services 

  • Hospitals looking to do this could be trying to produce more revenue 

  • People can contact their insurance companies to find out if they are going to be billed on the services

  • It's important that people understand what they will and won't be billed on
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“Hospitals are definitely under a lot of financial pressure from a number of different scenarios,” he said.

MyChart allows patients to communicate virtually with their health care provider. Cleveland Clinic will now bill patients for services, including requests to complete medical forms and changes to medication.

Campanella said the Cleveland Clinic is one of the few hospital systems to be doing this, but that more are planning to follow.

“A number of them are evaluating, based on what I’m hearing through various sources, potentially doing that in the future,” he said.

Campanella said that people can talk with their insurance company directly or through their employer to find out if they will be billed for these services. He expressed that, regardless, there needs to be more clarity on what services will and will not be billed.

“There needs to be much more transparency,” he said.

He has concerns regarding how this will help the hospital. Campanella explained that it could end up being worse for their financial situation.

“My concern is they’re actually going even to lose revenue because people might say, you know what, I’m gonna go to these other providers that don’t charge for these types of services,” he said.

Cleveland Clinic will begin billing on Nov. 17, and other hospitals are likely to follow in their footsteps.