Insure.com Examines Major Medical Mistakes Called 'Never Events'
19 Novembre 2008 - 11:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
DARIEN, Ill., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Medical doctors
take the oath of "Primum non nocere" in medical school, a Latin
phrase that means "First, do no harm." While no doctor intends to
harm a patient, even the most skilled and well-intentioned medical
professionals can make mistakes -- mistakes that should never
happen. Yet there are medical mistakes so serious, so outrageous,
that they are called "Never Events." Insure.com examines these in a
new report. What could possibly go wrong when you go the hospital?
-- Doctors have operated on the wrong body parts, amputated the
wrong limbs and left surgical devices and sponges inside patients.
-- Some patients receive transfusions of the wrong blood type or
are given an incorrect dose of medications. -- Women have been
artificially inseminated with the wrong donor sperm. That's only
for starters. Health insurers and Medicare have been footing the
bill for these mistakes for years. In August 2008, 23 states
decided that hospitals can no longer bill patients and insurers for
medical mistakes beginning in 2009. There are currently 12 states
that already operate this way. Under the old system, patients and
their insurers experienced the added insult of receiving a bill for
corrective surgery resulting from medical mistakes. In October
2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stopped
reimbursing hospitals for the costs of fixing certain medical
mistakes. Now, major insurers are announcing that they will tear up
bills for Never Events. Exactly when and how you could be billed
for a Never Event is difficult to pin down. For example, if your
doctor leaves a surgical instrument inside your body, you would be
billed for the initial surgery but not for the re-operation to
remove the instrument. You shouldn't be billed for whatever surgery
or treatment is required to correct the Never Event. If you've had
the wrong limb amputated, or some other irreversible mistake, your
recourse is a medical malpractice lawsuit. For the full article,
see "Insurers start to tear up bills for medical mistakes" at
http://www.insure.com/articles/healthinsurance/never-events.html
About Insure.com Originally founded in 1984 as Quotesmith
Corporation, Insure.com owns and operates a comprehensive consumer
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caters to the needs of self-directed insurance shoppers. Visitors
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from any company shown. Insure.com also plays home to over 2,000
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commissions that are paid by participating insurance companies. We
also generate advertising revenues from the sale of Web site
traffic to various third parties. Shares of the Company's common
stock trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol NSUR.
DATASOURCE: Insure.com CONTACT: Amy Danise, Editor of Insure.com,
Inc., +1-860-386-6446, Web site: http://www.insure.com/
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