Re: Medicare Says It Won't Cover Hospital Errors

From: Marilyn Ringstaff (marilyn.ringstaff@OBGYN.net)
Sat Aug 25 12:20:40 2007


<< I read an article this morning that stated this program will save Medicare $20 Million a year. The Medicare budget is $400 BILLION. That means that medical errors cost 0.005% of the entire budget. (and the auditors they hire to find the istakes will probably cost more than $20 mil. I'm wondering if there is any other industry where errors account for that small a fraction of the total expenditures, and will this program save money or just drive more hospitals into bankruptcy?>>

Anna- there is a list of ‘never events’ that Medicare is going to stop reimbursing hospitals for, I think the regulations are coming out in a day or two. This by no means addresses all medical errors- the ARHQ estimates that medical errors cost $37.6 billion each year; about $17 billion of those costs are associated with preventable errors. The CMS press release about it is at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=1863

I think the new program is aimed at reducing mistakes like this- the THIRD wrong site surgery for this neurosurgery unit in six years: Patient dies after surgeon operates on wrong side of head August 24, 2007

http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2007/08/24/patient_dies_after_surgeon_operates_on_wrong_side_of_head/

Marilyn

--
Marilyn Ringstaff, CNM, JD
Rome, Georgia




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