Health insurer WellPoint has taken a stand that most other U.S. insurers are likely to follow: It has announced that it, in coming months, will no longer pay for care resulting from serious medical error. WellPoint will start by denying payment for three never events: foreign objects left in patients after surgery, operations on wrong body parts and operating on the wrong patient. It's also refusing payment for hospital-acquired injuries, pressure ulcers, air embolisms, blood incompatibility, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, vascular catheter-associated infections, hospital-acquired injuries and chest infections after CABG. It is, of course, following CMS's lead, which announced last year that it would stop paying [0] for treatment related to certain adverse events.

To learn more about WellPoint's decision:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece [1](reg. req.)

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