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To boost quality and cut costs, insurer won't pay for medical errors called 'never events'
By Bruce Japsen | Chicago Tribune reporter

In health care, the customer isn't always right.

But now Illinois patients are getting a little more clout. Signaling an industry-wide shift toward more consumer-friendly practices long common in other businesses, the state's largest health insurer will soon begin refusing to pay for bad service.

If a hospital commits a serious error—such as leaving a sponge in a patient's chest after open-heart surgery or causing a prolonged illness by mixing up a patient's medication—Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois says it will no longer pay the claim.

The idea is that forcing hospitals to absorb those costs will create an incentive to improve quality of care in a business where money typically rolls in regardless of patient outcomes and customers often feel lost in a complex, impersonal system. Employers, consumers and taxpayers are increasingly demanding that providers of medical care be held more accountable, particularly as the costs of health insurance continue to rise.