KS health plans won't pay for 'never events'

Kansas' largest health plans have announced that they will stop paying hospitals for avoidable complications from care, including the administration of wrong blood types and certain infections. This includes Wichita-based Preferred Health Systems, which will stop paying on Oct. 1. Preferred Health Systems patterned its payment policy after Medicare's, but added a few non-payment conditions of its own, including wrong-side and wrong-part surgery and wrong-patient procedures. Meanwhile Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, which will begin enforcing this policy on Jan. 1., followed up on its informal policy of refusing such payments.

The plans' decisions come on the heels of a recent announcement by Medicare that it was expanding its own list of "no pay" conditions, bringing the total of no-pay events to 11. Observers expect to see many more health plans get on the bandwagon over the next few months, as Medicare gears up to enforce its rules starting Oct. 1.

To learn more about the health plans' decision:
- read this piece in The Wichita Eagle

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