Foreseeing the morass of litigation that will ensue:
Medicare’s announcement it will refuse payment to hospitals for treatment caused by hospital mistakes redounds most severely on the patient entangled in a labyrinth of complex legal issues between the hospital and Medicare. At a minimum, this will result in credit damage and financial distress to the patient. Added to this is the foreseeable paranoia of hospitals with Medicare patients and the temptation to conceal mistakes instead of resorting to peer reviews as is now practiced to learn from mistakes.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The person who wrote that article is clueless.
Hospitals will not be allowed to sue/balance bill patients for what Medicare refuses to pay.
If one income stream is decreased by Medicare reimbursements, another will be increased to maintain revenue. The patient for whom Medicare is refusing payment will not pay the difference, but it will be passed onto others in the form of increased labs costs, room fees, etc.
Can the government tell a business what prices to set for services?
Only those who sign contracts that allow it to.