Orlando medical malpractice continues at Orlando Regional Medical Center and Florida Hospital. AsOrlando medical malpractice lawyers, we find that recent federal regulations may increase hospital costs when medical malpractice happens. Medicare, the largest insurance provider in the country, announced that it will no longer be financially responsible for the costs of hospital’s medical errors, nor will these costs be pinned on patients themselves.
According to a study by The Institute of Medicine, conducted in 1999, preventable medical errors cause the deaths of 44,000-98,000 people each year. These deaths are the result of many preventable errors dealing with misdiagnosis, improper treatment, and inadequate preventative care.
Some of the medical malpractice that Medicaid will no longer pay for include (1)Incompatible blood transfusions, (2) Development of infections after certain surgeries,(3)A second operation to retrieve a sponge left from initial operation,(4) Serious bed sores, (5) Injuries from certain falls and (6) Urinary tract infections caused by catheters.
Surprisingly, this new enforcement offers little financial benefit to the insurance companies, according to a The New York Times report. Instead, the new rule is acting as a catalyst to move medical professionals in the direction of preventative care. This step is hoped to support the transition from focusing on quantity of care to focusing on the quality of medical care.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on medical issues, recently recommended that payments to some hospitals be reduced if those hospitals experience high readmission rates. Furthermore, Medicare is offering bonuses to hospitals that merely report their quality measures, yet another incentive for hospitals to become more accurate.
The approach Medicare is taking has been adopted by other insurance companies: both private and public and even by some state laws. Maine was the first state to ban payment for hospital error all together and at least 20 states have laws requiring hospitals to report to the public if they make a preventable mistake.
Perhaps, this new approach will help limit medical errors. Reportedly, some hospitals are taking initiative by collaborating with each other; trying to discover common problems they all face and discussing possible solutions to them. Certainly Orlando Regional Medical Center and Florida Hospital, like all hospitals, can do more to reduce medical errors and medical malpractice.
