Corporate Compliance

Note: Never Events - Updated guidance on reporting surgical errors for Medicare inpatients

Medicare Weekly Update, September 15, 2009

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Editor’s note: Judith Kares, JD, CPC, regulatory specialist for HCPro, Inc., is the author of this week’s note from the instructor.

During the last few years, there has been considerable focus on certain events identified as “serious, largely preventable and of concern to both the public and health care providers.” These events have become more popularly known as “never events”—events that should never occur in a well-run healthcare facility with appropriate quality controls. In June of this year, Medicare released three national coverage determinations (NCDs) for the following surgical errors:

  • Wrong surgical or other invasive procedure performed on a patient (NCD 140.6);
  • Surgical or other invasive procedure performed on the wrong body part (NCD 140.7); and
  • Surgical or other invasive procedure performed on the wrong patient (NCD 140.8).

Click over to the MedicareMentor Blog to read about the new guidance.



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