Medicare will no longer pay for illnesses, infections, or injuries resulting from hospital errors, according to a new rule announced just this month. The initiative is aimed at improving the accuracy of Medicare's payment for hospital patients receiving acute care, as well as to encourage hospitals to improve the quality of their services.

Bob Vineyard over at InsureBlog muses about the decision, saying:

On one hand, I agree. Why should the taxpayer pay for things where the hospital (or other negligent party) is clearly liable.

On the other hand, who is going to decide the liability issue? Are the hospitals going to readily admit their wrong? Will the patient be caught in the middle?

The AP article states that hospitals will be expected to pick up the tab for care related to incidents that could have been prevented. Mismatched blood transfusions, operations on the wrong body parts, that sort of thing. Private insurers are also expected to instantiate the same rule.

At first blush, this seems fair. Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for medical mistakes—neither should the patient. I guess what isn't clear to me is how the new rule will protect patients from accruing these extra costs. If no one's watching as the hospital charges me $50 for two ibuprofen, who's going to be watching if I'm charged an exorbitant amount of money to cover the vascular damage from a catheter?

Hopefully you experts in the health insurance industry can enlighten me. :)