Call Us Toll-Free: 1.877.767.3108

Posted in Medical Malpractice Blog, General Blog

Could you have to pay for a medical mistake?

March 6th, 2008 by Dawn Mefford

In an online MSNBC story from February 29, (which can be read in full here) reporters found that more hospitals are crafting lists of mistakes that “should never have happened” for which they are not charging patients and insurance companies. 

The change hasn’t come fast enough for two people interviewed by MSNBC.  Kevin Baccam, of Urbandale, Iowa, recently sued when his hernia surgeon made two incisions in his groin because the first incision was in the wrong place.  Baccam said he wasn’t intending to take action against the doctor and hospital, until he got a bill for BOTH procedures. 

The reporter also talked with Patty Canakaris of St. Augustine, Florida.  Cankaris’ brother died after being given the wrong type of blood during a simple surgery.  The hospital charged the man’s estate for the cost of the surgery.  Canakaris refused to pay. 

State medical associations and some hospitals have started crafting voluntary policies that would identify a list of mistakes for which the patient would not be billed.  The National Quality Forum (NQF), a health care safety advocacy group, has suggested that patients should not be charged for 28 procedures.  The group’s list includes mistakes like giving a mother the wrong baby to leaving objects behind in patients during surgery. 

Eleven states’ hospital associations have already adopted policies that would keep the patient from being billed for some of the procedures on the NQF’s list, or other procedures chosen by the states.  In other places, hospitals themselves have adopted similar policies. 

Those groups or institutions that are creating non-payment policies say that they are trying to do what is best for patients.  But consumer advocacy groups suggest that the sudden rash of new polices are a reaction to the Federal Government’s refusal reimburse though Medicare for mistake procedures.  According to MSNBC, in 2006 Medicare was billed 764 times for objects left behind after surgery, 33 times for patients who received the wrong blood and 323,000 times for pressure ulcers, a preventable problem.  Those bills totaled almost $13.1 billion dollars in reimbursements.  Medicare, like Baccam, has said, “Enough.” 

The story did not mention whether Missouri’s hospital association has adopted a non-payment policy.  The story does mention that the Illinois Hospital Association has formed a task force to look into the creation of such a policy. 

Share This