The latest in a series of reports by a Pennsylvania agency charged with monitoring hospital safety finds that hospital-acquired infections in the state cost taxpayers and insurers more than $1 billion last year alone. According to the report, in 2004 Medicare faced $1 billion in extra costs related to infections, and insurers were billed an additional $603.8 million. Pennsylvania is one of only a few states that require hospitals to report infections. The local hospital association is critical of the agency's methodology, arguing that it sensationalizes and overstates the extent of the problem. The hospitals group notes the numbers are based on hospital charges, not what is actually paid.
- see this article from The Philadelphia Inquirer