Clinical site fees at UC: who charges, who collects, who pays

Who sets clinical site fees

UC's Clinical Planning page puts it in one line: the fee structure for clinical activity is determined by each site. UC doesn't set site fees, cap them or publish a schedule of them, and no UC page we reviewed describes a UC charge for placement support itself.

Some sites charge an administrative fee for hosting a student. UC is explicit that this fee isn't a payment to the preceptor. It belongs to the organization, and how it reaches the site depends on whether the site wrote it into its agreement with UC or bills students on its own.

Amounts vary by site and change over time, so this page names none. Ask the site, and your CSC, for the current figure in writing before you commit to a placement.

Cleveland Clinic and Atrium Health: the fee runs through UC

UC names two systems that include an administrative fee in their Educational Affiliation Agreement: Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and Atrium Health, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, in North Carolina. For those two, the money moves in a set order.

1. The agreement names the feeThe site's affiliation agreement with UC includes its administrative fee.
2. UC collects it from youBecause the fee sits in UC's agreement, UC must collect it from the student.
3. UC passes it to the siteUC then pays the fee on to the site, so expect the charge to come from UC rather than from the hospital.

Cleveland Clinic is also one of the systems where UC asks you to contact your CSC before you pursue a preceptor at all. Starting with your CSC brings the fee up at the right moment. Site onboarding lists the other systems on that contact-first list.

Outside those two, UC notes that some sites bill students directly. The cost is yours either way; what changes is who sends the bill.

Site fees versus preceptor fees

Keep two questions apart. A site's administrative fee goes to the organization. A preceptor fee would be something an individual clinician asks of you, and UC treats it as a separate matter: its networking suggestions tell students to ask whether a preceptor charges a fee and what the refund terms are.

UC itself doesn't pay preceptors. Its preceptor FAQ says the college doesn't currently offer financial compensation and runs continuing-education webinars through the year instead, and UC recognizes preceptors through its annual APRN Preceptor Awards. If a preceptor raises payment, it isn't coming from UC. Talk to your CSC before you agree to anything, and remember that paying a preceptor doesn't change UC's review of them.

Placement costs UC says are yours

UC's Fall 2026 Student Handbook and its Critical Requirements page put a range of placement costs on students. Most depend on the site, the state and your own situation.

• Site fees, whether collected through UC's agreement or billed by the site.
• Travel and temporary housing, when a placement is outside your area.
• Extra drug screens, fingerprinting and additional background checks a site or state requires. Ohio clinicals, for example, need a fingerprint-based check.
• Every Critical Requirements cost, including the CastleBranch package, background check and drug screen, plus any retest after a dilute, positive or donor-error result.
• Immunizations and titers, which the handbook says students pay for.
• Health insurance, a Critical Requirement; students in online programs can't enroll in UC's student health insurance, so coverage has to come from elsewhere.
• Exposure care, such as a needlestick, unless site policy, a student health plan or the Bloodborne Pathogen Insurance Plan covers it.

One cost you shouldn't need is a personal malpractice policy for UC clinicals. UC's Preceptor Guide says students are covered under UC's self-insurance and commercial insurance from enrollment, and your CSC can send a site the verification. The handbook adds that students may buy extra coverage if they choose. CastleBranch and Critical Requirements covers the compliance items.

How to ask about fees before you commit

Fee questions are easiest in the first real conversation with a site. UC's networking suggestions already put fees on the list of things to ask a prospective preceptor, alongside hours per week, patient volume, whether an agreement is needed and which onboarding platform the site uses. Add these site-level questions.

• Does the site charge students an administrative fee, and is it written into an affiliation agreement?
• Is the fee billed through the school or sent to the student directly?
• What does it cover: one course, one term or the whole program?
• Is any of it refundable if UC doesn't approve the site or the rotation ends early?
• Are there onboarding costs on top, such as a platform account, a badge, extra screening or modules?
• Does the preceptor expect anything personally, separate from the site?

Bring the answers to your CSC, who handles the agreement and will know whether a fee is already in UC's contract with that site. The affiliation agreement page explains how agreements are set up and how long they take.

Paid match services and UC's warning

A placement service is a different kind of cost from a site fee, and UC is candid about it. The 2022 networking document names paid matching companies as one route, then urges students to exhaust their own options before paying for one, warning of the financial strain. It pairs that warning with a short interview list for any such company: the price, what is and isn't promised, the refund policy, and whether its clinicians would clear UC's preceptor review.

We are a paid service, so those questions apply to us as well. Our cost page explains what shapes a quote, and choosing a placement service works through UC's questions. Any site fee sits outside our quote, and UC still approves every preceptor, site and agreement.