More payers halt reimbursement for ‘never events’

Another major health plan has announced in April that it will no longer reimburse for specific "preventable adverse events" and "never events."

As of Oct. 1, 2008, WellPoint will no longer pay for 11 preventable errors. These include the same eight conditions that CMS has selected to not reimburse for as of Oct. 1, plus WellPoint has added three additional scenarios:

• Surgery performed on the wrong body part
• Surgery performed on the wrong patient
• Wrong surgery performed on a patient

WellPoint joins the ranks of other payers that instituted similar policies since the announcement of CMS's decision to quit paying for preventable errors. Aetna announced in January that it is changing its hospital contracts to stipulate it will no longer pay — not let patients be billed — for 28 different never events compiled by the National Quality Forum. (Read The Wall Street Journal article here.)