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Medicaid

Medicare announced the new rules concerning the costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and actions that occur in hospitals.  Under the new rules certain conditions that could reasonably have been prevented will not be paid for.  This would include bedsores, or pressure ulcers; injuries caused by falls; and infections resulting from prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder.  Additionally, Medicare will not pay for treatment of serious preventable events like leaving a sponge or other objects in the patient during surgery and providing a patient with incompatible blood products.  According to Herb B. Kuhn acting deputy administrator of the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services "if a patient goes into the hospital with pneumonia, we don't want them to leave with a broken arm."

The Center for disease control and prevention estimates that patient developed 1.7 million infections in hospitals each year.  And it says that those infections cause or contribute to the deaths of 99,000 people a year.  If some of these infections are preventable there will be an outstanding loss of money to the hospitals.  The federal government estimates that Medicare will save about $20 million a year under the new rules.  Hospitals will not be able to charge patience for the care denied by Medicare as preventable. The hospitals will now have a financial incentive to practice good medicine and avoid costly injuries to patients.
This story was reported in the New York Times on August 21, 2007.

If you or a loved one has medical malpractice questions in New York, please contact the personal injury attorneys of Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, serving clients in New York and NYC including Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, and Queens.

Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C.
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