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Medicare is adding to its do-not-pay list for hospitals two new categories of preventable conditions it won't cover, a much smaller number than it had been contemplating.
Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services set new ground by determining it no longer pay would extra costs for treating certain preventable conditions, referred to as "never events." An example of a never event is a transfusion with the wrong blood type. Medicare officials have now announced Thursday that it no longer will pay the extra-care costs associated with treating dangerous blood clots in the leg following knee or hip-replacement. The program also will not pay extra for complications stemming from poor control of blood sugar levels. The changes were made as part of a final rule setting payment rates for inpatient hospitals for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
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