Editorials Examine Decision To End Medicare Payments For Preventable Hospital Errors

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 12 Sep 2007 - 2:00 PDT

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Summaries of editorials addressing CMS' recent decision to end Medicare reimbursements for eight specific preventable errors in hospitals appear below.

• Eugene Register-Guard: CMS' decision to eliminate payments for preventable errors is "practical" and "sensible," the Register-Guard writes in an editorial. The editorial concludes, "The bottom line is the bottom line: Medicare spent more than $185 billion on hospital care in 2006. For that kind of money, taxpayers have a right to expect that everything possible is being done to eliminate preventable errors" (Eugene Register-Guard, 9/4).
  
  
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Medical errors are rarely the result of one person's mistake," but rather they "usually reflect the failure of underlying processes or protocols in patient diagnosis and treatment," a Star-Telegram editorial states, adding, "Preventing errors requires facility-wide solutions." The Star-Telegram concludes, "Although Medicare's new policy is a financial decision, ultimately it should significantly improve U.S. hospital patient care" (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9/7).
  
  
• Long Island Newsday: "Medicare's sanctions should be limited to clear snafus," a Newsday editorial states, adding, "And to the stick of withheld payments, Washington should consider adding a carrot: a bonus of some sort for hospitals that significantly reduce their rate of never events." The editorial concludes, "Blunders shouldn't be rewarded. Flipping the script to pay hospitals and doctors less, rather than more, when they make preventable errors should lead to fewer errors. That's unambiguously good for patients" (Long Island Newsday, 9/7).
  

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