Understanding Your Bill

Our cost estimate tool helps you estimate your out-of-pocket costs for care. This tool provides cost estimates for at least 300 common medical services and procedures.

While this tool can help you estimate some healthcare costs, it’s important to know that it only provides a partial estimate. The estimate includes the hospital’s charges and fees, but it doesn’t include physician fees (except for services at Virginia Mason Medical Center), such as charges for your Emergency Services department physician, radiologist, or anesthesiologist. In addition, your final cost may be higher or lower depending on many factors, including insurance coverage, the length of your stay in the hospital, health complications, and recommended treatments ordered by your provider.

For a more complete understanding of your financial responsibility, contact your insurance provider. You can also learn about financial assistance options you may be eligible for.

To generate the most accurate estimate for your health care procedure, please have the following information available:

• Insurance information, if applicable (not required)
• Patient’s personal information, including contact information
• The name of your procedure or service

CHI Franciscan patients estimate your costs

Virginia Mason Medial Center patients estimate your costs

Standard charge information
You can also download a list of our standard charges for these services by hospital.

CHI Franciscan/Franciscan Medical Group
Many Virginia Mason Franciscan Health medical clinics, St. Anthony Hospital, St. Clare Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, St. Joseph Medical Center, St. Michael Medical Center, and St. Anne Hospital have transitioned to the same electronic medical record system. This means if you visit one or more of these facilities, you’ll receive a consolidated bill for the services provided by Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (pictured below).

Virginia Mason Medical Center
The following are two types of statements you may receive regarding your health care services from Virginia Mason Medical Center:

CLINIC STATEMENT
The “Statement of Clinic Services” describes charges for services rendered by providers (physicians and/or other health care professionals) at Virginia Mason. If the services you receive are covered by insurance, your benefits will determine how much of the charge you’ll be required to pay out of pocket. Your Virginia Mason statement will reflect details of your visit, your payment(s), and any amount still outstanding.

HOSPITAL STATEMENT
The “Statement of Hospital Services” describes charges for facility-related services rendered at our Virginia Mason Hospital & Seattle Medical Center and Federal Way's Outpatient Hospital Surgery Center. This may include inpatient and/or outpatient care. If the services you receive are covered by insurance, your benefits will determine how much of the charge you’ll be required to pay out of pocket. Your Virginia Mason statement will reflect details of your visit, your payment(s), and any amount still outstanding.

Explanation of benefits (EOB)

After every visit at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, an EOB is sent by your health insurance company to you as a covered individual, explaining what medical treatments and/or services were paid for on your behalf. An EOB isn’t a bill. It’s also important to remember that your medical bill will reflect the amount that wasn’t covered by your insurance plan. If you have questions about your insurance coverage, please contact your health plan directly.

Bills from other medical providers

It’s important to remember that while you may have been treated at one of our facilities, imaging, lab tests, and other services and procedures may have been performed by other groups that regularly provide care for our patients. Many providers, ambulance companies, and labs are separate businesses with their own billing and accounting procedures. Please contact these organizations directly with any questions regarding their bills.

Make a payment online

If you received care within one of our clinics, hospitals or other locations, it's easy to pay your Virginia Mason Franciscan Health bill online:

• CHI Franciscan/Franciscan Medical Group patients: Online Bill Pay
• Virginia Mason Medical Center patients: Online Bill Pay

The No Surprises Act protects consumers who get coverage through their employer (including a federal, state, or local government), through the Health Insurance Marketplace® or directly through an individual health plan. Beginning January 2022, these rules:

• Ban surprise billing for emergency services. Emergency services, even if they’re provided out of network, must be covered at an in-network rate without requiring prior authorization.
• Ban balance billing and out-of-network cost-sharing (like out-of-network coinsurance or copayments) for emergency and certain non-emergency services. In these situations, the consumer’s cost for the service can’t be higher than if these services were provided by an in-network provider, and any coinsurance or deductible must be based on in-network provider rates.
• Ban out-of-network charges and balance billing for ancillary care (such as an anesthesiologist or assistant surgeon) by out-of-network providers at an in-network facility.
• Ban certain other out-of-network charges and balance billing without advance notice. Health care providers and facilities must provide consumers with a plain-language consumer notice explaining that patient consent is required to get care on an out-of-network basis before that provider can bill the consumer.

For consumers who don’t have insurance, these rules make sure they’ll know how much their health care will cost before they get it, and might help them if they get a bill that’s larger than expected.

The rules don’t apply to people with coverage through programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Indian Health Services, Veterans Affairs Health Care, or TRICARE; these programs have other protections against high medical bills.

Consumer notice

To learn more about your rights and protections against surprise medical bills, access the consumer notice published by the Office of Insurance Commissioner for Washington state, which can be found below.

   | Updated E2SHB 1688 Consumer notice (PDF, 125.70 KB)

No Surprises Act Disclosure

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No Surprises Act Uninsured/Self-pay Good Faith Estimate Notice

• Arabic
• English
• French
• German
• Hindi
• Hmong
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish
• Tagalog
• Traditional Chinese
• Vietnamese