N.Y. Medicaid to stop paying for "never events"

The New York State Medicaid program announced this month that it will stop paying for 14 hospital-caused conditions beginning Oct. 1.

The 14 non-reimbursable conditions include:

• Surgery performed on the wrong body part;
• Surgery performed on the wrong patient;
• Wrong surgical procedure on a patient;
• Foreign object inadvertently left in patient after surgery;
• Medication error;
• Air embolism;
• Blood incompatibility;
• Patient disability from electric shock;
• Patient disability from use of contaminated drugs;
• Patient disability from wrong function of a device;
• Incidents whereby a line designated for oxygen intended for patient is wrong item or contaminated;
• Patient disability from burns;
• Patient disability from use of restraints or bedrails; and
• Patient disability from failure to identify and treat hyperbilirubinemia (bilirubin in blood) in newborns.

Similar to the present-on-admission (POA) reporting required by Medicare this year, hospitals receiving payment under New York Medicaid will be required to provide information on each admission that will designate which complications were POA and which ones occurred during or as a result of hospital care.

Access the New York State Medicaid press release here.