Medicare's August Rule: Necessary Step Toward Minimizing Federal Spending or Overbroad Decision Leading to Higher Malpractice Costs?

Recently, the federal agency that administers Medicare decided that, beginning in 2008, Medicare will no longer pay for certain patient conditions acquired in the hospital that are deemed preventable. Patient safety advocates support this pronouncement because it gives health care providers an additional reason to avoid the occurrence of these conditions. Some physicians, however, believe that the decision was too overbroad because of its inclusion of certain infections and bedsores that are not always preventable for all patients. Because some conditions involved are not preventable, the occurrence of a condition should be presented in the same manner as other evidence in a malpractice case, through expert testimony.