Medicare Won't Pay for Hospital Mistakes

[Geri_Gal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081800760_pf.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/w...l=1&adxnnlx=1187571847-R0+8PLZNZqgQN1xsFCrYfw

And “The hospital cannot bill the beneficiary for any charges associated with the hospital-acquired complication,” the final rules say.

Wow. This merits discussion. Objects left in surgical fields, I can see...BUT catheter associated UTI's? Pressure sores? And why did they leave out post-operative infections?

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[Miami_med]

The hospitals all have the ear of congress, it'll be interesting to see what happens from here.

 

[docB]

The rule identifies eight conditions _ including three serious types of preventable incidents sometimes called "never events" _ that Medicare no longer will pay for.

Those conditions are: objects left in a patient during surgery; blood incompatibility; air embolism; falls; mediastinitis, which is an infection after heart surgery; urinary tract infections from using catheters; pressure ulcers, or bed sores; and vascular infections from using catheters.
Holy crap! UTI after catheters and thrombophlebitis after an IV aren't even complications really, more like expected sequeala. And all that bunk about "improving quality" is like a Dilbert cartoon. It's about saving money. This will just result in more bad medicine like what has happened with the 4 hour pneumonia "Core Measures" BS. I'm sure hospitals will demand that all pateints with foleys be started on antibiotics, the blood bank process with get even more Byzantine, patients will be Poseyd more to prevent falls and so on.