Pay for performance is an idea as old as the hills. Glad the government is catching up.
Medicare is closing the money faucet on preventable medical mistakes in hospitals; they'll have to pay to fix their own errors and may not bill the patient.
The initial savings could be rather small for the $408 billion program. But we're talking about a new ethic for hospitals and insurance providers.
According to The Associated Press, Medicare is targeting eight conditions: objects left in a patient during surgery; blood transfusion incompatibility; air embolism; falls; mediastinitis (which is an infection after heart surgery); urinary tract infections from using catheters; pressure ulcers (bed sores); and vascular infections from using catheters.
Some of those problems are obvious foul-ups; germs are not as easy to track.
Hospitals must be more careful to screen incoming patients for infections. Staff must routinely practice the highest levels of hygiene.
A study of Michigan hospital intensive care units, where patient safety had been "average," found that for the period March 2004 to June 2005 a patient-safety initiative saved nearly 1,600 lives, reduced days spent in the hospital by 81,000 and reduced health-care costs by nearly $166 million.
Medicare's policy has the earmarks for producing vastly improved health care in the United States.
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