The next time you go to the doctor's office, you may not know whether or not they're affiliated with a hospital system.

If they are, your bill for a routine visit may include some surprising extra charges, fees that go to the hospital, even if you never stepped a foot inside it.

Special correspondent Megan Thompson has our report.

In 2016, Jess Ayers and her family move from New Jersey back to her home state of Minnesota.

Ayers said about making appointments with new doctors for her three children, especially her daughter who needed regular eye exams.

She was diagnosed with strabismus, which is essentially a lazy eye.

So they took her to an ophthalmology practice

at this clinic in Minneapolis that had been recommended by their old doctor in New Jersey.

After the checkup, Ayers was surprised to receive two bills, one for the physician's fee,

and one for hospital charges totaling $176. It was very puzzling and frustrating.

Had you gone to a hospital?

No, we had not gone to a hospital.

Right. This was a doctor's office.

Ayers discovered the doctor's office was part of a hospital system called M Health Fairview,

one of the largest health systems in the state.

So Ayers, who works in health care communications, had to pay something called a facility fee.

I was dumbfounded because I'd never heard of it.

And having worked in health care for a long time, I was taken aback.

She's not alone, says Christine Monaghan, an expert on facility fees at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. Facility fees are particularly pernicious because that are these

high, often surprising bills that are not really adequately covered by our insurance.

Monaghan says hospitals have traditionally charged facility fees to help cover

their overhead costs, but more and more, they're charging the fees for routine outpatient care.

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