The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a new set of proposed national coverage determinations that would prevent the agency from paying for three never events: wrong procedure, wrong patient and wrong site surgery.

The proposal comes on the heels of a recent CMS rule ending Medicare payments to hospitals for the treatment of preventable conditions, such as pressure ulcers and retained objects, acquired during a patient???s hospital stay. But while that rule only applies to hospital inpatient stays, the proposed NCDs for erroneous surgeries would affect payment to any healthcare provider involved in the errors.

"The proposed national coverage policies for certain types of surgical errors are important steps for Medicare in working to reduce or eliminate their occurrence and their associated payments," says acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems in the release.

CMS is accepting public comments on the proposal until Jan. 1, 2009, and plans to issue the final NCDs no later than two months after the comment period has ended. CMS has separate Web sites for submitting comments on its wrong site, wrong patient and wrong procedure NCDs.

For a refresher on the Joint Commission???s Universal Protocol, see "Zero Tolerance for Wrong-Site Surgery" from the October 2008 issue of Outpatient Surgery Magazine.

—Irene Tsikitas