Medicare to Quit Paying for Medical Mistakes
Not long ago, I wrote “Texas Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case on Malpractice Caps,” which is ironic, considering today’s news.
Today, Medicare announced that it will stop paying medical bills for 10 preventable conditions in a congressionally-mandated attempt to save millions. Among those conditions are:
* Bedsores
* Infections after surgeries
* Incompatible blood transfusions
* Urinary tract infections caused by catheters
* Operations to remove sponge left from first operation
* Injuries from falls while at the hospital
Amazingly, out of the 12.5 million people covered by Medicare, cutting these corners could prevent several hundred thousand hospital stays a year.
On the positive side, doctors will stop getting paid for medical errors and this major change will hopefully encourage better medical practices.
But I also see this as bad news for consumers. I wonder if the patient will get billed for the doctor’s mistakes instead? I would hope not. And worse than that, I wonder if the remedial procedures or treatment will ever even occur? Take for example, a piece of sponge left in a body after surgery. That’s about the clearest example of a medical error that exists. So if Medicare doesn’t pay for the second (and necessary)sponge-removal surgery, will the doctor just do the surgery for free? Probably not.
If a doctor has the fear that goes along with the threat of a medical malpractice case, then a necessary second surgery might be possible. But here in Texas, doctors received a “free pass” by our state government with the so-called Tort Reform of 2003. In the new law, there have been unreasonably low caps placed on recoverable damages, which has led most attorney’s (including myself) to refuse to take medical malpractice cases. Since doctors are basically shielded from lawsuits, their incentive to “do the right thing” and fix their errors is nonexistent. With no fear of litigation and no payment from Medicaid, there will be outrageous numbers of medical errors which will unfortunately go untreated.
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