From The New York Times
Change is to save money, improve care of patients
WASHINGTON
In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move that could save thousands of lives and millions of dollars. Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and benefits for patients.
Consumer groups welcomed the change, set forth in rules to be published Aug. 22. Although hospital executives endorsed the goal of patient safety, they said, the policy would require them to collect large amounts of data they do not now have.
Under the new rules, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain “conditions that could reasonably have been prevented.”
Among the conditions that will be affected are bedsores, or pressure ulcers; injuries caused by falls; and infections resulting from the prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder.
In addition, Medicare says it will not pay for the treatment of “serious preventable events” like leaving a sponge or other object in a patient during surgery and providing a patient with incompatible blood or blood products.
“If a patient goes into the hospital with pneumonia, we don’t want them to leave with a broken arm,” said Herb B. Kuhn, the acting deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The new policy - one of several federal initiatives to improve care paid for by Medicare, at a cost of more than $400 billion a year - is sending ripples through the health-care industry. It also raises the possibility of changes in medical practice as doctors hew more closely to clinical guidelines and hospitals perform more tests to assess the condition of patients at the time of admission. More…
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