In light of recent publicity about preventable errors that occur in hospitals (see our blog items here and here for starters), hospitals in 23 states now say they won’t bill patients for the worst kind of medical mistakes that are made there – including operating on the wrong body part or the wrong person, or giving someone the wrong blood, according to an MSNBC.com analysis.
This is an increase from MSNBC’s February survey, which reflected hospital associations in only 11 states on board with that concept.
Kansas — home to the Kansas Hospital Association — is on the list. According to our medical mistakes billing policies, Kansas hospitals are encouraged not to bill for at least seven preventable hospital-based mistakes. See the interactive map here.
I’ve written about this phenomena before and it never ceases to amaze me. Today, the New York Times published a story highlighting how health benefits are increasingly paving the way to the altar for many couples.
How common is this? Impossible to measure, but the article notes:
In a poll conducted this spring by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy research group, 7 percent of adults said someone in their household had married in the past year to gain access to insurance. The foundation cautions that the number should not be taken literally, but rather as an intriguing indicator that some Americans “are making major life decisions on the basis of health care concerns.”
I wonder when and how insurance companies will try to mitigate this. You know they can’t — understandably — be happy about it, but can the do anything about it? Should they? Many will tread lightly, I suspect, in light of recent heavy sanctions — $13 million in fines, actually — levied against some insurers who nefariously dropped coverage on members after they become ill. Who’s more desperate to protect themselves — the uninsured or the insurance providers?