Medical malpractice attorneys are aware of the “silent” fraudulent billing practices, by hospitals and doctors, disguised as patient treatment. Medicare is no longer paying for the added cost of treating patients who are injured in their care.
There are 12.5 million people covered by Medicare annually. Medicare spent $110 billion on inpatient care alone in 2007. Medicare has defined a list of “reasonably preventable” medical conditions, occurring due to health care provider errors and will no longer reimburse. Medication errors, blood transfusions, post operative infections, secondary operations as a result of leaving equipment inside a patient during the first procedure, and bedsores are some of the “reasonably preventable” conditions listed.
Hospitals have been reimbursed for their mistakes, and the cost to correct them for decades. The federal government has had enough of hospitals and physicians profiting from their mistakes. Officials believe this new policy may apply to several hundred thousand hospital stays annually. This policy may have landmark implications because medicare sets a standard for billing and reimbursement in the insurance industry.
There is another “silent” practice medical malpractice lawyers have known. Insurance companies have already been refusing to reimburse hospitals and physicians for costs submitted, resulting from patients injured under their care. Because of this, hospitals have been directly billing the patients they injured when the claim is denied.
For example: People are admitted into the hospital for care. While receiving care, the hospital staff and physicians pass on an infection to a patient. The insurance company denies the treatment for the infection because the hospital and its staff is responsible. The lack of simple hand washing before and after patient care, by health care providers, is considered the number one reason why hospital acquired infections exist according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The hospital simply sends the denied claim, to the person they gave the infection.
The new policy will also prevent the hospital from billing Medicare patients directly for reimbursement from preventable illnesses. Medical malpractice lawyers know more than 100,000 people die in this county every year due to medication errors. This number does not include the long list of other injuries caused by hospitals and doctors.
State and local legislators are passing laws to protect hospitals and doctors from “frivolous” medical malpractice claims. A hospital acquired infection is considered one of these “frivolous” medical claims by the medical community.
Medical malpractice lawyers have been fighting for the rights of injured patients and losing this negative propaganda campaign. The costs involved in litigation is keeping injured patients from receiving compensation. The medical community is so bold as to then bill the people they have injured, due to their own negligence and expect them to pay.
Heather Ryan – Medical Malpractice News Reporter for Justice News Flash – West Palm Beach News Post Company serving medical malpractice attorneys nationwide using legal press release distribution.