The problems of not paying for Medicare errors

This is how it works in the rest of the world. Mechanic screws your car up, they either fix it free of charge, or you go somewhere else and get it fixed and sue the mechanic for the cost of repair.

Why does this shock any of you?

“This is how it works in the rest of the world. Mechanic screws your car up, they either fix it free of charge, or you go somewhere else and get it fixed and sue the mechanic for the cost of repair.”

Because a human is not a car. A human was not designed/manufactured in a plant such that we know everything about the machine. We know a hell of alot more about auto’s than humans. Does that shock you? I am not justifying “never” errors such as wrong site surgery of leaving things in body cavities. I would postulate that a demented, bed bound, person developing a pressure sore and a superimposed MRSA infection, does not fall into that category.

” I would postulate that a demented, bed bound, person developing a pressure sore and a superimposed MRSA infection, does not fall into that category.”

And you’d be right. But that doesn’t address the issue. If it’s an error it’s an error. Now, you may debate how they define error, and that’s fine. But once we’ve agreed that it is an error, why should you be paid for fixing it?

Why shouldn’t the patients say that? After all, that’s what the physicians are saying.

There seems to be the equation of poor result with error.
Bed sores happen even with the best of care; Christopher Reeve no doubt had the best round the clock care that all his money could buy, yet he got be sores and died.
Infections happen. Statistically, some infections are due to errors, since not following best practices can have higher infection rates than best practices. But note that there is a very real (and very deadly) infection rate even with best practices. Which infections were caused by which actions remains pure speculation.

As a previous poster noted, there will be unintended consequences. The price tag to hospitals for caring for those patients at highest risk of complication will be seen as an even greater financial gamble. The 450 pound diabetic I took care of today who required 8 people to transfer him between beds reimburses the same as a normal patient with the same tibia fracture. It does not matter how much care we try to provide in the best manner, his complication rate is enormously greater than the normal 12 year old (that’s right, he’s only 12 and 450 pounds).

If he has a complication of any sort, he can kiss health care anywhere else goodbye. As another poster above noted, there aint no hospital around who would voluntarily undertake any further care as there would be the possibility of receiving no pay at all if it were deemed that they were treating a complication from the first hospital. Bean counters will deny, stall, and obfuscate.

But studies have shown that the likelihood of being sued for malpractice, with the attendant expense and psychic pain, is as common for going through “green lights” as for going through “red lights”.

Also, I note that a lot of states have implemented no-fault auto insurance – so they obviously think that you shouldn’t have to pay for your automotive mistakes.

The “best and the brightest?” The highest median earners in the country? Those that are viewed by the masses with veneration bordering upon the superstitious? “Medicine, magic, miracles…” mistakes? Say it isn’t so! Deities do not make mistakes. It is a sacrilege to even suggest such a thing.

a demented, bed bound, person developing a pressure sore and a superimposed MRSA infection, does not fall into that category.

What is a demented bed-bound person doing in a hospital? Is there anything that will fix them there? Are they confused and vulnerable to getting worse?

Could they not be getting custodial care, and treating the bedsore in a nursing facility that would have some degree of normalcy for them?

As a society maybe we have to come to grips with the notion that in some circumstances less is better.

How are they going to know if its an error or not? Its based on coding data. What hospital is going to code for something they KNOW they can’t get paid for.

Anyway, the non doctors on this site who postulate the completely INAPT analogy about hitting someone with a car should know that it is often a catch 22. Example: A bed bound patient admitted with pneumonia cannot get out of bed. Well diapers aren’t hygenic, but if you place a Foley, then there’s arisk of infection. So is a catheter related infection an “error”? I don’t think so. It solved the other problem of having the patient stew in a diaper filled with urine and possible skin ulcers, which would apparently be considered ANOTHER error.

So many examples are proof that it’s an unfair and bogus construct. If they were really concerned with lowering complications, they would have monitoring in hospitals and pay for systems that would ensure lower rates of such things. Intsead of just screwing already-underfunded hospitals.