Medicare Won't Cover Hospital Errors

Jennifer Moore

Contributor

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

In a major policy change, Medicare will no longer pay hospitals for costs due to medical errors. Check out the list of the items Medicare won't pay for any longer under the fact sheet, "Eliminating Serious, Preventable, and Costly Medical Errors - Never Events" on Medicare's website. This decision is a great start to force hospitals to take responsibility for medical errors such as infections and bedsores. The new Medicare policy change should save the program money, but it also may have serious unintended consequences. It raises serious questions as to what happens to the patients who are victims of medical error. Who will pay for their medical bills? When Medicare and health insurers won't pay for infections and the consequences of other errors, who will treat the patients who have suffered injury? These issues must be addressed to avoid further harm to the victims of medical error.

In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars.
...
Under the new rules, to be published next week, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain "conditions that could reasonably have been prevented."

Among the conditions that will be affected are bedsores, or pressure ulcers; injuries caused by falls; and infections resulting from the prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder.

In addition, Medicare says it will not pay for the treatment of "serious preventable events" like leaving a sponge or other object in a patient during surgery and providing a patient with incompatible blood or blood products.

For more information on this subject matter, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.