Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

hunter49 said:
have heard the same, docs and hospitals getting paid for cause of death listed as co-vid....corruption is rife in the system.
Click to expand...


Actually, medicare addressed this rumor. The fact is, yes hospital administrators flat rate increases when a medicare patient is hospitalized with a critical respiratory illness and tripled when/if a ventilator is necessary. The catch however is, this policy applies to any and all respiratory illnesses not just the covid virus. Below is a 2017 (before covid 19) quote from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

For less severe hospitalizations, we use the average Medicare payment for respiratory infections and inflammations with major comorbidities or complications in 2017, which was $13,297. For more severe hospitalizations, we use the average Medicare payment for a respiratory system diagnosis with ventilator support for greater than 96 hours, which was $40,218.
Click to expand...

 
hunter49 said:
have heard the same, docs and hospitals getting paid for cause of death listed as co-vid....corruption is rife in the system.
Click to expand...


This is false.

It doesn't matter if a person dies or not, but Medicare (aka the government) roughly pays a hospital a $13k flat rate for that hospital having a Medicare member that gets admitted with COVID.  I think Medicare pays ~$40k for an admit with a ventilator, death or no.  There are no "bonus" payments that hospitals are getting for having a person dies with COVID.

Medicare (aka the government) has a fee schedule that they follow for payments to hospitals/doctors.  This fee schedule varies based on the severity of the admit/procedure, as well as a couple other factors (the location of the hospital/doctor, etc).

If a non-Medicare person gets admitted with COVID, then that hospital gets $0 from the government.  They would get the

negotiated rate with the insurance company that covers the person admitted.

 
Red Five said:
This is false.

It doesn't matter if a person dies or not, but Medicare (aka the government) roughly pays a hospital a $13k flat rate for that hospital having a Medicare member that gets admitted with COVID.  I think Medicare pays ~$40k for an admit with a ventilator, death or no.  There are no "bonus" payments that hospitals are getting for having a person dies with COVID.

Medicare (aka the government) has a fee schedule that they follow for payments to hospitals/doctors.  This fee schedule varies based on the severity of the admit/procedure, as well as a couple other factors (the location of the hospital/doctor, etc).

If a non-Medicare person gets admitted with COVID, then that hospital gets $0 from the government.  They would get the

negotiated rate with the insurance company that covers the person admitted.
Click to expand...
I believe the Cares Act pays all med bills for all virus cases every age and place.  no insurance no medicare etc. 

so - yes there is major financial incentive to covid cases.  dead or alive.  

 
Hilltop said:
I really appreciate you taking the time to thoughtfully respond.  It's hard for the average person to trust much right now so an opinion like yours helps.  I wish there were an outlet where people could just go to get real information, good and bad.  
Click to expand...


Good scientific experts are smart enough to admit what they don't know. I think that's what we've been seeing. It's confusing because it's unfolding and there are lots of variables in both the numbers and the anecdotal evidence. But in fairness to the experts, much of it has unfolded as they predicted, based on a long history of epidemics and pandemics that our generation of Americans had been lucky to avoid. 

You hate to play politics with this, but if there was ever a crisis that required national leadership and government response, this is it.  

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
Good scientific experts are smart enough to admit what they don't know. I think that's what we've been seeing. It's confusing because it's unfolding and there are lots of variables in both the numbers and the anecdotal evidence. But in fairness to the experts, much of it has unfolded as they predicted, based on a long history of epidemics and pandemics that our generation of Americans had been lucky to avoid. 

You hate to play politics with this, but if there was ever a crisis that required national leadership and government response, this is it.  
Click to expand...
unfortunately, each state holds the Trump card, they decide....no pun intended. Even lowly mayors can throw their weight around, everyday is independence day, see it happen daily.

 
EdYykPV.jpg


UDKYFbT.jpg


o7pF8l9.jpg


Rzas3p9.jpg


tU5FQhf.jpg


 
84HuskerLaw said:
Well maybe but until we have the important data released (actual infection rates across the entire population) it is impossible to tell.  

It may well be that the mortality

rate is very very low and all the shutdown / social distancing / etc was basically for naught.  By fall it may be that 65% or more of population has already had the virus.  That will make all the fuss over trying to contain the spread useless and fiscally stupid beyond all comprehension.  The med “experts” who drove the bus into the grand canyon economically will never be believed / trusted again. 
Click to expand...
This a 1000 times over they will cover the numbers up in 2020 but by 2022 a look back will show the real numbers

 
84HuskerLaw said:
Well maybe but until we have the important data released (actual infection rates across the entire population) it is impossible to tell.  

It may well be that the mortality

rate is very very low and all the shutdown / social distancing / etc was basically for naught.  By fall it may be that 65% or more of population has already had the virus.  That will make all the fuss over trying to contain the spread useless and fiscally stupid beyond all comprehension.  The med “experts” who drove the bus into the grand canyon economically will never be believed / trusted again. 
Click to expand...


Again, the med experts tried to tell the policy experts what was about to happen. The med experts were largely correct. When people could literally see bodies being stacked up in New York, Italy, and Spain and healthcare systems being overwhelmed, the drastic measures became more acceptable -- not just here, but in very different counties and governments around the world.  Those measures were largely effective and the curve started flattening, as predicted. That it didn't end up as badly as it could have been (yet) makes the experts case as much as it disproves it. Left unchecked, more people die, the healthcare system breaks down and the economy plunges into the grand canyon anyway.

The med experts aren't driving anything. Just counseling the policy makers based on a long and sometimes catastrophic history of pandemics.  You are right that we will learn a lot more when this is all over and the data is crunched. Very hard to tell where you are when you're inside it. Also really stupid not to learn from history, which is why we keeping hearing about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

 
Back
Top