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Medicare Stops Paying for Medical Errors

By Beth Janicek

In August our topic was on surgeries and I posted on Medical Errors that should not happen but unfortunately still do. Medicare has now implemented a list of “never events” they will no longer pay hospitals for when patients are injured in their care. This went into effect October 1st and the “never events” are:

1. Foreign object retained after surgery;

2. Air embolism;

3. Pressure Ulcers;

4. Blood incompatibility;

5. Falls and trauma;

6. Catheter associated urinary tract infection;

7. Vascular catheter associated infection;

8. Manifestations of poor blood sugar control;

9. Surgical site infection following coronary artery bypass surgery;

10. Surgical site infection following orthopedic procedures;

11. Surgical site infection following bariatric surgery for obesity;

12. Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism following orthopedic procedures.

Louis Filhour, Albany Med’s senior vice president of clinical quality said:

“They’re telling us this list is just going to get longer every year. They’re just going to stop paying for our mistakes.”

Under this policy change, CMS will only pay for the condition present when a patient was admitted.

Four state Medicaid programs and some of the country’s largest insurers, WellPoint in Indianapolis, Aetna in Hartford, Cigna in Bloomfield, CT, and the parent of Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York have also implemented not paying for “never events”.

When hospitals are held accountable for their medical errors the result should be less deaths and injuries. Hopefully, this will not give hospitals incentive to turn away high-risk patients fearful that a “never event” could occur under their watch.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Beth Janicek

Full post as published by San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).