ARTICLE: Medicare, Medicaid not paying for medical mistakes

Thursday, January 10, 2008
11 News

As of October 2008, they will no longer pay for medical mistakes and conditions patients acquire in hospitals, like infections.

Instead, the hospitals will have to pick up those costs.

Harris County Hospital District Chief Medical Officer Dr. Fred Sutton says this means hospitals will just have to get better at preventing infections and mistakes.

Bedding and linens that could cause ulcers for patients have been upgraded to avoid that condition.

A new kind of sponge that can be seen with an X-ray will help ensure that medical staff do not leave anything inside a patient during surgery.

Plus, hospitals will have to take more detailed notes when admitting patients.

This will ensure the patients have a record as to whether they showed up with an infection or whether it was acquired in the hospital.

“Under the rule, Medicare no longer will reimburse hospitals for the treatment of certain conditions that could reasonably have been prevented,” said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The organization said that the facilities cannot bill the beneficiary for any charges associated with the hospital-acquired complication.

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