Preventable Medical Errors: Neither Insurance Nor Patients Should Pay
Medicare, the largest insurance provider in the country, announced on October 1, 2008, that it will no longer be financially responsible for the costs of hospital’s medical errors, nor will these costs be pinned on patients themselves.
According to a study by The Institute of Medicine, conducted in 1999, preventable medical errors cause the deaths of 44,000-98,000 people each year. These deaths are the result of many preventable errors dealing with misdiagnosis, improper treatment, and inadequate preventative care.
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