Medicare to Stop Paying for Errors

This is one of those things that would seem to be an Onion headline but it's not.  Until recently, Medicare and for that matter private insurance pays for medical care even when it's botched.  

I love this part especially:

“Historically, there’s been some acceptance that these things happen,” said Brock D. Nelson, the hospital’s president. “We’ve come to now accept that they’re avoidable. And that’s a sea change.

Some improvements have been technological, like an electronic prescribing system that has helped cut medication errors in half. Others are breathtaking in their obviousness, like diligent hand-washing."