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Such fees have become routine in American health care in recent years, according to an investigation by ProPublica published on Monday, and some medical clinics say they'll seek to pass those costs on to patients. Almost 60% of medical practices said they were compelled to pay fees for electronic payment at least some of the time, according to a 2021 survey. With more than $2 trillion a year of medical claims paid electronically, these fees likely add up to billions of dollars that could be spent on care but instead are going to insurers and middlemen. (Podkul, 8/15)

Mayo Clinic will start charging patients for some online messaging exchanges with their doctors, closing an increasingly popular backdoor route to free medical advice. Patients will be warned, starting Friday, that their messages could result in charges of up to $50 if Mayo doctors respond with diagnostic information. The Rochester-based health care system announced the switch Monday in response to a recent 132% increase in patient messages, which sometimes averted the need for billable clinic visits. (Olson, 8/14)

The best-paid doctors in America work in the Dakotas, where they averaged $524,000 (South) and $468,000 (North) in 2017 in their prime earning years, including business income and capital gains. That’s well above the already astonishing $405,000 the average U.S. doctor made in the prime earning years, defined here as 40 to 55. (Van Dam, 8/11)

CommonSpirit Health, the massive not-for-profit health system formed through a 2019 merger, paid its former CEO $35.5 million in 2021, the latest year for which data is available. The size of Lloyd Dean’s pay package is likely to reignite questions about health system CEO pay, especially at tax-exempt organizations. (Bannow, 8/14)

The University of Texas at Austin and one of the most well-known cancer treatment centers in the world are partnering to build a new $2.5 billion medical hub geared toward serving Central Texas. The University of Texas System Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife announced Monday plans to create the new facility in partnership with the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the nation’s No. 1 cancer hospital. MD Anderson is part of the university system and has several locations in the Houston area. (Simpson, 8/14)

AdventHealth sued MultiPlan for allegedly colluding with other insurers to shortchange providers for care offered outside of an insurance company’s network, the latest example of the litigious relationship between health systems, physicians and insurers. ... AdventHealth alleged that nationally, MultiPlan underpays healthcare providers $19 billion a year. The system seeks damages for the alleged underpayments and lost revenue amounting to “hundreds of millions of dollars.” (Kacik, 8/14)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Promising Better, Cheaper Care, Kaiser Permanente’s National Expansion Faces Wide Skepticism 

As regulators review Kaiser Permanente’s proposed acquisition of a respected health system based in Pennsylvania, health care experts are still puzzling over how the surprise deal, announced in April, could fulfill the managed care giant’s promise of improving care and reducing costs for patients, including in its home state of California. KP said it would acquire Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger — which has 10 hospitals, 1,700 employed physicians, and a 600,000-member health plan in three states — as the first step in the creation of a new national health care organization called Risant Health. Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente said it expects to invest $5 billion in Risant over the next five years, and to add as many as six more nonprofit health systems during that period. (Meyer, 8/15)

When Dr. Lucy Lomas learned about the disturbing role of slavery in the origins of her medical specialty, gynecology, she said she felt “heaviness and heartache,” some of which she still carries with her. But she said she also feels a strong drive to create a better system of care for Black women, something that can’t be done without looking to the past. (Mohammed, 8/14)