Starting october 2008, Medicare (The US government payment for care of citizens 65 years and above) will not longer reimburse hospitals for the additional cost of care that causes harm. This was reported in the NYtimes Editorial on October 4, 2008.
The objective of this change is really not the savings (estimated at $21 Mil per year compared to the over $1 Trillion in health care expenditure in the US) but hopefully this will encourage hospitals to do more to reduce errors and protect patients.
The new rules will start with just 10 "preventable errors" such incompatible blood transfusion, patient falls, bed sores but it is expected that over time more conditions will be added and hence the impetus for US hospitals to get ready now.
The key question is will this work as it should?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment