Medicare Won't Pay for Mistakes??

The thing that you will learn about me is that I generally will have an opinion about something. That opinion is not always the most popular and or it may be somewhat twisted. Any and all statements are my opinion and not those of any other party. Throughout my blog, you will find tips and techniques that will help you access and maneuver the system easily. The nature of the healthcare system creates many obstacles or bumps that make it difficult to work through.

A short while ago, there was an article in our local newspaper about how Medicare will no longer pay for mistakes. The general message was that hospital payments will be reduced or retracted by Medicare if the hospital charges were caused by a preventable hospital error i.e. certain infections or bed sores. I can just imagine that hospitals are scrambling to adjust for this rule. How will it be determined what is normal condition of a patient or a potentially preventable condition. I suspect there will be a fine line, resulting in conflicts between the hospital and Medicare. Appeals to the decision will be made and probably so much red tape to wade through that the cost of care has already gone up.

What is Medicare? It is the government's pay system for the elderly and disabled. The proportion of the population that is of medicare age is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50%. As we have all been warned that figure is going to jump drastically as the first of us Boomers turns 65 years old. So, you can think of Medicare as your future insurance company.
Something is fundamentally wrong with this initiative as with many of Medicare iniatives. That is leaving out the physician in the picture. Yes, there will be impact on the physician but it will be done by the hospital. It does not appear to me that this initiative is any different. The physician reimbursement is not affected by these restrictions. When this happens, the hospital is forced with implementing new policies and trying to convince the physician to not only comply but be enthusiastic about it.

I know it sounds like I am taking sides with the hospital industry but really I am more in favor of including the physician reimbursement with these cuts. I have always thought that the physician payments should be ammended along with the hospital...how else are incentives ever going to be totally aligned for the good of the patient-you and me.