The Michigan Health & Hospital Association joins a growing list of hospital associations, states and payers who have adopted policies to stop billing patients for certain serious preventable errors ("never events") and hospital-acquired conditions. This follows on from Medicare's decision to cease payment from 2008, for specific hospital medical errors.

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has begun posting hospital infection rates on its Web site - (Healthcare Associated Infections Report).

The information, which was collected over a five-month period in 2007, includes the number of infections patients acquired while receiving treatment at a hospital.

Online infection reporting was mandated by state law. DHEC will report verified findings to the state Legislature beginning in 2009.

iHealthBeat reports that the release of hospital preventable infections information to the public could be delayed because of concerns about its validity.

The following is a summary of legislation by state regarding the disclosure by hospitals of their hospital infection rates.

Arkansas

AHA News reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has opened to all U.S. hospitals its Web-based network for tracking healthcare-associated infections. It said the National Healthcare Safety Network has been improved to meet the needs of states with mandatory reporting of HAIs, and that eight states (California, Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia) plan to use the network in implementing mandatory reporting. CDC said the secured network allows hospitals to analyze the data and share it within a facility or with the general public if desired.