The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has not reimbursed hospitals for costs associated with certain preventable complications, including catheter–associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), since 2008. This policy was controversial when implemented, although the actual financial implications to hospitals were unclear. This study from Michigan is one of the first to objectively assess the impact of the CMS policy and found very few cases where payment was denied due to a CAUTI. The incidence of CAUTI was much lower than expected, most likely due to inaccuracies in the billing claims databases used to identify CAUTI. As the accompanying editorial notes, prior research has also cast doubt on the suitability of administrative data for reliably identifying patient safety events.