Construction costs on Merit Health River Region’s new annex building have risen by nearly $4 million, state health regulators said Thursday, though the re-branded hospital network assures its added expenses won’t trickle down to patients.

An application from Vicksburg Healthcare LLC to the Mississippi State Department of Health stated soil composition prompted more prep work on the site for construction, according to a news release from the agency, which announced it had issued a certificate of need, or CON, for the project. Work to level the foundation and install an electrical system is being done according to the City of Vicksburg’s building inspection codes; no zoning or building code exists outside the city where the hospital sits.

Spending on the 63,000 square-foot annex on the front lawn of the U.S. 61 North hospital’s main campus rose $3.7 million, to $16.9 million. Once complete, the building is to absorb services slated to move out of River Region West and The Street Clinic, plus certain others from the main campus. Busiest among those services includes pediatrics, sports medicine, pain management, urology and rheumatology.

Furniture and equipment also added to the cost, a list hospital officials said included exam tables, physical therapy equipment, radiology upgrades and more.

“This amount was not included in the original CON capital expenditures, but it will have no cost impact to patients,” Merit Health spokeswoman Heather Butler said in a statement Thursday. “When complete, the new medical office building will improve access to medical services for residents of the Vicksburg community by making available more services and physicians to serve their healthcare needs.”

In January, River Region and the five hospitals and most of the 36 affiliated clinics purchased early last year by Community Health Systems formed the Merit Health brand with an eye toward expanding certain services. Member facilities besides River Region are Central Mississippi Medical Center, in Jackson, River Oaks Hospital and Woman’s Hospital, in Flowood, Crossgates River Oaks Hospital, in Brandon, and Madison River Oaks Medical Center in Canton. CEO Greg Pearson said the hospitals had a combined payroll of $133 million in 2013, including benefits.

Medical Associates of Vicksburg, which had been run by CMMC, announced this month it was purchased by four of its staff physicians.