Healthcare Reform Protects Patients and Saves Millions
Medical errors kill and maim thousands of citizens every year. Now, under the new health care reform legislation, something is finally being done to protect innocent potential victims of medical errors.
The new healthcare legislation, which was so vehemently opposed by many as being the destruction of healthcare, puts hospitals on notice that they must improve the safety and quality of care for patients or risk large fines.
The health care reform statute contains dozens of provisions designed to protect patients. These include including fining hospitals in an effort to reduce medical errors, hospital-borne infections and costly preventable readmissions. It is estimated that these three problems alone cost billions of dollars annually.
When considered individually the costs and extent of these problems is staggering.
Preventable readmissions cost the health care system about $25 billion every year, according to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
In an effort to alleviate this problem, beginning in 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services will publish each hospital's readmission track record. A “readmission” is defined as a patient returning within 30 days of discharge. High readmission rates tend to indicate hospitals are ignoring patient issues or engaging in premature discharges.
In an effort to stem this issue, beginning in 2012, Medicare will stop paying hospitals for preventable readmissions tied to certain health conditions such as heart failure or pneumonia. In 2014, the policy will be expanded even farther.
The second penalty for hospitals addresses hospital-acquired conditions stemming from medical errors or infections.
The government currently gives hospitals an incentive payment for reporting their performance in areas such as patient satisfaction and care tied to treatment of conditions such as heart failure, pneumonia and hospital-borne infections.
Under the new statute, beginning in 2012, hospitals will be reimbursed according to their score. Higher scoring hospitals will receive higher payment and vice versa.
In 2015, the government will start reporting each hospital's record for medical errors and infections relating to Medicare patients.
About 15 million injuries result every year in the United States due to inferior medical treatment. These include more than than 30,000 people who die annually from catheter-related blood stream infections.
In 2015, Medicare will reduce its payments by 1% to hospitals with the highest rate of medical errors and infections. The government will also no longer pay hospitals for treatment when a Medicaid patient is harmed during a hospital stay.
It is anticipated that these financial incentives and penalties will greatly reduce injuries to patients and save millions of dollars at the same time.
From a consumer, patient and taxpayer perspective, these new common sense provisions are a big win.
