Minnesota Follows Medicare’s Footsteps
The Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty (R) announced that hospitals across the state have agreed to eliminate charges for conditions resulting from certain medical errors, as well as the additional and follow-up care resulting from the mistake. The announcement applies to both private insurance companies and individual patients payors, detailed in a press release from the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA).
Under the plan, 27 errors will no longer be the responsibility of the payors. All of these fall into the category of “never events”, errors that should never occur. Those events include wrong site surgery, left behind equipment in a body cavity during surgery, serious medication mistakes, severe bedsores, and falls among other conditions.
MHA is commencing to campaigns to help combat the likelihood of at least two of these scenarios; falls and serious pressure ulcers. The campaigns and protocols were developed from local and national level best practice measures.
Since 2004, hospitals throughout Minnesota have been required to report all cases of the “never errors”, as required by state legislation. Since that time, the president of the Minnesota Hospital Association suggests that many facilities have ceased charging for such. Minnesota is the first state to codify this practice of not charging.
This legislation matches plans from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued earlier this year. Medicare will discontinue reimbursements for certain medical errors, as detailed in a Hospital Buyer report at the time of the announcement from CMS in May.
October 2, 2007 Related topics: Legal & legislative, Trends, Quality, Safety, Errors