South Carolina’s Medicaid Program plan will cease payment for serious preventable medical errors (“never events”), reports Fierce Healthcare. The program covers about 800,000 South Carolinians. Officials with the program say that they will not cease payments to hospitals right away, however, as they have some technical questions to address before stopping such payments. The South Carolina Hospital Association has already adopted principles encouraging hospitals not to bill for certain mistakes, but participation is voluntary.
Recently, Medicare officials urged state Medicaid directors nationwide to implement the non-payment policies, already in effect in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.
In ceasing payment, South Carolina Medicaid Program joins other health plan peers, including Medicare, CIGNA, Aetna, Wellpoint, and a number of Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates. Meanwhile, hospitals in nearly half of states have agreed not to bill for never events.
