Medical Providers Bill for Medical Negligence

Scott Smith

Contributor

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Medical providers bill the patient for care that results in medical negligence. Some of the largest businesses in the country have called on hospitals to apologize and waive costs related to "never" events - medical errors these employers say should never happen in the first place.

Medical negligence such as surgery performed on the wrong body part or mixing up donor sperm and/or donor eggs for artificial insemination seem obvious errors a patient should not be responsible for but bills are sent anyway. Other errors including "retention of a foreign object in a patient after surgery", or patient injury associated with "contaminated drugs, devices or biologics provided by the health care facility" to name a few, also result in unjust billing.

At least one study suggests that medical errors and low quality health care account for 30% of the more than $2 trillion spent on medical care in the U.S.

Although health insurers say that they are working clauses into contracts with hospitals that would preclude them from being billed for "never" events, there is a momentum to apply that practice to lesser errors. Unfortunately, few states require hospitals to report their errors.