Hospitals wise to not bill patients for medical errors A deal was reached between Gov. Chris Gregoire and leaders of hospitals, doctors and surgery centers in the state to end the practice of billing patients who are suffering because of medical errors.
We all know that medical care doesn't come with a warranty. Success is never guaranteed.
However, it seems wrong -- no, make that outrageous -- that patients who suffer serious health problems as a result of hospital errors are expected to pay for the lousy medical treatment.
Yet, that's the norm. Take, for example, what happened to a Bellingham man in 2003. A fire that erupted in the throat of Dennis "Rocky" Rockenbach during minor surgery on his vocal cords. The mistake on the operating table left Rockenbach with severe burns to his throat and vocal cords. He spent a month in the intensive-care unit and was left with permanent injuries.
Oh, and he was sent a hospital bill for $66,000.
This isn't an isolated case. This has been happening for years in Washington state and across the nation.
But this week a deal was reached between Gov. Chris Gregoire and leaders of hospitals, doctors and surgery centers in the state to end the practice of billing patients who are suffering from these medical errors, The Seattle Times reported.
The agreement lists 28 situations, ranging from surgery performed on the wrong body part or the wrong patient to foreign objects left behind in surgery, The Times reports. The deal also covers death or serious disabilities caused by contaminated drugs or devices, and burns suffered in the hospital.
The agreement by the Washington State Medical Association, the Washington State Hospital Association and the Washington Ambulatory Surgery Center Association makes sense from a fiscal as well as moral perspective. It should have been done earlier. We find it amazing that medical providers would actually bill a patient after egregious errors.
Then again, we shouldn't be surprised by actions driven by the fear of a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Health-care providers don't want to accept responsibility for even minor errors because they don't want to provide ammunition for a lawsuit. Forgiving a bill for botched services could be taken as an admission of guilt.
But this agreement between the state and medical providers would seem to offer some reasonable protection for patients and providers.
Lawyers who represent injured patients told The Times that the agreement makes good "risk management" sense.
"Failure to take responsibility for a mistake is really why we're here," said Reed Schifferman, a plaintiff's attorney in Seattle.
Money aside, which isn't an easy way of looking at medical-care issues, tearing up the bills for those who were hurt by errors is the right thing to do. People who are suffering physically should not have to suffer the indignity of being billed for the procedure that caused their pain.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This editorial ran on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008
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