Anyone can make a mistake, even those who work in medicine. Unfortunately, the mistakes made by medical professionals can be more devastating than other professional oversights.
If you recently discovered a medical mistake after an outpatient surgery or a brief stay in the hospital, your first inclination might be to simply move forward with your care if you didn’t suffer any harm because of it. However, when physicians and other medical professionals make mistakes, patients often suffer financial consequences. Even if you have health insurance, you need to speak up about errors and negligence.
Medical mistakes can cost patients thousands of dollars
Here’s a statistic that can put that into perspective. If your surgeon makes a mistake during the procedure, you can expect to pay an average of $39,000 more. That figure only looks at direct medical costs — not the secondary expenses like lost wages for the patient and possibly family members providing support.
When you have no insurance, a substantial deductible or low limitations on the amount of coverage you receive, tens of thousands of dollars in extra medical costs could mean thousands of dollars more out of your pocket.
The nature of the mistake, its impact on your health and the consequences for your household revenue will all influence the cumulative financial impact of a medical mistake. Whether you receive the wrong medication or had a surgeon leave something inside you during a procedure, that mistake will have tangible consequences for you that produce real financial losses.
Pursuing a medical malpractice claim isn’t a sign of greed or even anger at the medical professionals in the vault. It is a necessary step to offset the negative financial consequences of someone else’s mistake and to hold them accountable.