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Who should pay when hospitals commit errors?

Starting in October 2008, Medicare will not pay hospitals for committing common and preventable errors. These errors include pressure sores, certain infections, blood incompatibility, air embolism, and unintended retained objects from surgery. At Williamson & Lavecchia, L.C. we have represented a number of victims of these medical errors. In many cases, the hospital has charged Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers for correcting these errors. It certainly seems odd that a hospital should profit from its own negligence. Hopefully, this rule will do more than keeping hospital from profiting from their negligence. My hope is that it will encourage hospitals to become more aggressive about protecting patients from the consequences of these serious errors. Josh Silverman