Hey all you doctors, nurses and other hospital staff, listen up. Medicare is no longer going to pay for mistakes (like sponges left inside of patients after surgery). Read about it here in the New York Times.
Private insurers are going to monitor the new policy to see if they can implement something just like it -
"Susan M. Pisano, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, said, 'Private insurers will take a close look at what Medicare is doing, with an eye to adopting similar policies.'"
"The Bush administration estimates the new policy will save Medicare $20 million a year. But other experts say the savings could be substantially greater."
$20 million might as well be 20 cents when you're talking about government spending. It sounds like this will result in a lot of finger pointing and tons of spending by hospitals, but I suppose time will tell. The statistics for rates of infection and accidents will be released sometime in the future, and we'll see if this initiative has given medical care providers the right incentive to give better, more efficient care.
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