The American Hospital Association has called the Leapfrog Group's hospital hidden-cost calculator "seriously flawed," according to a report from HealthLeaders Media.
The calculator allows employers to see what proportion of their health premiums go towards managing medical errors. To create that number, the tool uses an algorithm that incorporates safety records at each hospital at which an employee received care, according to the report.
The AHA alleged that the tool's assumptions on infection and error rates are not properly adjusted, which means the tool is incorrectly calculating costs that in reality are far more nuanced.
The organization also said that addressing a narrow subset of cost-defining factors as seen in the calculator is simply inaccurate, according to the report.
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