GREENSBORO -- Patients who are hospitalized have a 1 in 10 chance of getting an infection, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's called a Hospital-Acquired Condition, or HAC, and starting Oct. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, will no longer cover several selected infections.

“An estimated 99,000 people died from these hospital-associated infections in 2002, exceeding the number attributable to several of the top ten leading causes of death reported in the U.S. vital statistics," said Herb Kuhn, and official with CMS.

That issue was the focus last December at a conference held by CMS with hundreds of health care providers. The agency announced it planned to make changes to the way it would reimburse hospitals for eight Hospital-Acquired Conditions.
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