Deadly Infections Drive Billions in Hospital Bills to Medicare
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Life-threatening complications from bacterial infections are on the rise among hospital patients, increasing at a double-digit rate as the population ages and costing U.S. health-care programs billions of dollars a year.
One form of the condition, severe sepsis with a major complication, was the second most frequently billed diagnosis submitted by hospitals to Medicare in 2013, with more than 398,000 cases, according to data released Monday from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.