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Many Massachusetts hospitals waive charges for errors

Quality Improvement Monitor, September 21, 2007

About half of the hospitals in Massachusetts say they have policies to waive charges for egregious medical mistakes, such as wrong site surgery, according to the Boston Globe.

Of the 61 hospitals reporting to The Leapfrog Group, 33 said they have voluntarily stopped charging for 28 serious errors, or "never events," the paper said.

Last month, CMS announced that beginning in October 2008, Medicare will no longer pay for complications for eight preventable conditions. Three of the largest insurers in Massachusetts are considering following suit, the Globe reported.

As of October 1, 2008, CMS will not pay for the following eight conditions unless they are documented as present on admission:

  • Serious preventable event -- object left in surgery
  • Serious preventable event -- air embolism
  • Serious preventable event -- blood incompatibility
  • Catheter-associated urinary tract infections
  • Pressure ulcers
  • Vascular catheter-associated infection
  • Surgical site infection -- mediastinitis after coronary artery bypass graft surgery
  • Patient falls

    For more about the errors Medicare will no longer pay for, read the September issue of the Quality Improvement Report.

    For more information, click here.

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