Medicare

Medicare to halt hospital payments for medical errors

On Wednesday, a Medicare resolution that entails stopping hospital payments for costs of medical errors came into effect.

Consequently, hospitals will no longer be receiving money that covers the treatment of patients who have been injured as an outcome of flawed or reckless medical care.

Medicare has made out a list consisting of ten “reasonably preventable” conditions for which the program would not be paying, which includes incompatible blood transfusions, development of an infection as a result of a previous surgery, serious bed sores and urinary tract infections caused by catheters.

Moreover, Medicare has announced that they would be deterring hospitals from adding the cost incurred by medical errors to the patients’ bills.

Medicare’s decision promted other health care insurers to apply similar measures. During this year, four Medicaid programs throughout the United States have informed hospitals of their halting the payments for a number of "never events" (events that are never supposed to take place).

The largest U.S. health insurer’s measure, which was Congressionally mandated, will save approximately $21 million annually, a small amount compared to the $110 billion that has gone on inpatient care last year.

Large commercial insurers such as WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna and Blue Cross Blue Shield have also decided to stop hospital payments for medical errors.

Medicare, which was signed into law back in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, is a social insurance program under the United States government’s administration aimed at providing health insurance benefits for the elderly, the disabled or for others who meet the program's special criteria.

(Published by eFluxMedia - October 2, 2008)