Medicare often pays hospitals to practice bad medicine

Gilbert M. Gaul of The Washington Post reports in a three-part series that Medicare policies often pay hospitals to practice medicine poorly. “In a four-year period, 106 heart patients at Palm Beach Gardens developed infections after surgery, according to lawsuits and government records.” In part-two of the series, the Post looks at the nonprofit that oversees the evaluation of hospitals. The nonprofit charges hospitals “thousands of dollars for coaching on how to pass its reviews.” The last part in the series details how some are finding it very difficult to access records because of privatized groups under contract by Medicare.