Some hospitals in Massachusetts already stepping forward on the upcoming Medicare provisions stating they will pay for errors, but as the article states, sometimes errors and what caused them are not always black and white. BD
Moore sees another possible outcome: The threat of nonpayment will be so powerful that hospitals will find ways to dramatically reduce poor outcomes.
About half of Massachusetts hospitals say they have adopted policies to waive charges for serious medical errors such as wrong-site surgery and harmful medication mistakes, and others say they plan to, amid growing resistance from government and health insurers to paying for poor outcomes.
In some cases, hospitals will not have a choice. Medicare, the federal insurance program for the elderly and disabled, decided last month that, beginning in October 2008, it will no longer pay hospitals for care resulting from eight complications, including falls, objects left inside patients during surgery, pressure ulcers, and three types of hospital-acquired infections.
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