Medicare Will Not Pay For Hospital Mistakes And Infections

In an effort to raise the quality of medical care, after October 1, 2008, Medicare, will no longer cover the costs of "preventable" conditions, mistakes and infections resulting from a hospital stay. As an example, if you are a Medicare patient and you acquire an infection while in the hospital undergoing an otherwise Medicare covered treatment, the hospital will not be paid for the additional costs incurred in treating the infection, and under Medicare rules, you as the patient cannot be charged for amounts above what Medicare has paid. Other examples of "preventable" conditions that Medicare will no longer pay for are:

• The removal of objects inadvertently left inside the patient during an operation
• Receiving the wrong blood type
• Air embolisms
• Treating bed sores acquired in the hospital
• Injuries from falls in the hospital

It is believed that the private health insurance sector will soon follow Medicare's lead.

The announcement by Medicare confirms what we have believed for years- that these types of errors are unacceptable deviations from the standard of care. If you have been injured by any of these incidents please contact us for more information.

In the News: Medicare Ruling

Not Paying for Medical Errors
Medicare, the government insurance program for older Americans, has announced that it will soon stop paying hospitals for the extra costs of treating certain patients whose illnesses are compounded by preventable errors. The effort won't save much money at first, and it will impose additional testing and documentation burdens on many hospitals, but it should promote better care. If the initial steps are expanded, it could yield greater savings as well...

Medicare Will Not Pay For Hospital Mistakes And Infections, New Rule
Starting in 2009, Medicare, the US government's health insurance program for elderly and disabled Americans, will not cover the costs of "preventable" conditions, mistakes and infections resulting from a hospital stay...

CMS is Investigating Ways to Help Reduce or Eliminate the Occurrence of "Never Events"
Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced that CMS is investigating ways that Medicare can help to reduce or eliminate the occurrence of "never events" - serious and costly errors in the provision of health care services that should never happen. Such action is part of the Agency's ongoing efforts to pay for better care, not just more services and higher costs. "Never events," like surgery on the wrong body part or mismatched blood transfusion, cause serious injury or death to beneficiaries, and result in increased costs to the Medicare program to treat the consequences of the error...

Medicare and health-care errors
For decades, Medicare has been paying hospitals the cost of fixing medical errors that resulted from the hospitals' own negligence. The Bush administration has announced that, as of Oct. 1, 2008, Medicare will no longer pay hospitals for treatment caused by these preventable medical errors. You would think the reasonableness of such a policy would have been self-evident long ago. These new rules will help in the future, but the money that Medicare has paid to correct past mistakes - payments amounting to billions of dollars - should be refunded and the Bush administration has the power to make it happen...

Medicare making hospitals clean up microbes
Efforts to protect patients from infectious superbugs lurking in hospitals have gotten a boost from a new Medicare policy that denies payment to facilities for costs to treat patients who've been harmed. Now hospitals must foot the bill...

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a hospital error please contact us for free consultation.