Hospital-acquired Illness creates 12% of liability: Study

Michael Glass

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A new study from http://www.businessinsurance.com came out recently with startling numbers. More than 12 % of hospital liability costs arose from hospital-acquired infections, hospital-acquired injuries, objects left in the body after surgery and pressure ulcers. As a result, Baltimore-based Centers for Medicare and Medicaid will no longer reimburse providers for certain categories of hospital-acquired conditions and medical errors.

There is concern by risk managers that the lack of a rebursement by these social programs will trigger an increase in hospital professional liability claims. Several insurers have announced they will cease reimbursing such errors, including Chicago-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.

The study was conducted to give health care managers a clearer understanding of their cost of risk compared to an industry benchmark. This was the first year the study included data on hospital-acquired illnesses. The hope is to use the new data to establish a benchmark against which future liability costs for such ailments could be compared.