All things Corona Virus

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

41% of covid patients are on medicare, and that pays 20% more for covid than non-covid cases.  Not all bills are the same.

 

 

 

  I never said all bills are the same. I said it is based on treatment.  People hospitalized with Covid generally require intensive treatment and also additional measures such as isolation and a single nurse assigned to each patient. The bill will be higher because of that.

 

   If you go to ER and they do a Covid test and send you home, your bill is the same whether the test comes back positive or negative. There's no surcharge just because you test positive for Covid. If they put you in isolation in ER because they suspect you might have Covid, your bill will be higher than if you are not in isolation. It still won't change based on the result of the Covid test. It is based on the treatment and measures they take while treating you.

 

  

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

These people are so comically pathetic they've lost all ability to even handle minor, once-in-a-blue-moon challenges from media (getting that accustomed to having their hands held)..

 

 

Utterly useless. 

Edited October 15, 2020 by Burnt Reynolds

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,367]

26 minutes ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

These people are so comically pathetic they've lost all ability to even handle minor, once-in-a-blue-moon challenges from media (getting that accustomed to having their hands held)..

 

 

Utterly useless. 

The dems have to know she is a liability 

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

4 hours ago, Steeleballz said:

 

  I never said all bills are the same. I said it is based on treatment.  People hospitalized with Covid generally require intensive treatment and also additional measures such as isolation and a single nurse assigned to each patient. The bill will be higher because of that.

 

   If you go to ER and they do a Covid test and send you home, your bill is the same whether the test comes back positive or negative. There's no surcharge just because you test positive for Covid. If they put you in isolation in ER because they suspect you might have Covid, your bill will be higher than if you are not in isolation. It still won't change based on the result of the Covid test. It is based on the treatment and measures they take while treating you.

 

  

Perhaps you should look into the money set aside via the Cares ACT.  As I said above. 20% more money is paid for medicare patients who have covid than for those who do not.  That means that Aunt Annie, who needs hospital care for 3 days, but tests negative for covid (and is not on Medicare), has a 20% smaller bill than Grandma Gertrude (who IS on Medicare) who needs the same three days of treatment but she tested positive for covid.  Put both of them on a ventilator for three days, and Grandma Gertrude's bill will be about 3X as much.  

 

You can try and put whatever spin on it you choose, but the numbers are out there for the public to see.

 

And yes, I understand that caring for someone with covid is more labor-intensive than someone who doesn't have it.  But is it always 20% more?  (maybe that's just an average amount they came up with?)   But if someone comes in, gets tested and treated, is sent home, and later the test shows they have covid, 20% gets added to their bill, even if they quarantine at home (at least for medicare folk).  I have a neighbor who had a family member who was on the brink of death with Azlheimers back in April or so.  Said family member succumbed, but also had covid prior to death.  20% for care rendered even before the test was added to their bill.  (While I did not see the bill myself, my neighbor did, and I trust him to not make such up)

Edited October 15, 2020 by Voice of Reason

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,367]

The simpler argument might be that applying false codes on an insurance claim is a felony and no hospital is going to risk losing its accreditation  and people going to jail over trying to systematically commit such widespread  claim fraud. Most hospitals have whole departments of medical pros to prevent that from happening. Retro review

Edited October 15, 2020 by Nature Boy 2.0

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

16 minutes ago, Nature Boy 2.0 said:

The simpler argument might be that applying false codes on an insurance claim is a felony and no hospital is going to risk losing its accreditation  and people going to jail over trying to systematically commit such widespread  claim fraud. Most hospitals have whole departments of medical pros to prevent that from happening. Retro review

I dunno about the felony part (probably depends on the type of false claim attempted?).  But there don't have to be any illegal attempts to gain more money.  Most states allow hospitals to put covid if covid is known or suspected.  That's pretty broad, wouldn't you agree?  And here in Florida, medical fraud is rampant; I have butted into several issues with things medical here that I have never before faced in any other state, and time after time, the medical staff and my neighbors tell me, "Well, fraud in Florida is terrible, so we have to do a lot more to keep it from happening."  I find it frustrating, but I understand.  As a person who has never tried to defraud any medical facility in my life, it sure has made getting supplies MUCH more difficult.

[yuna628 9,646]

1 hour ago, Nature Boy 2.0 said:

The simpler argument might be that applying false codes on an insurance claim is a felony and no hospital is going to risk losing its accreditation  and people going to jail over trying to systematically commit such widespread  claim fraud. Most hospitals have whole departments of medical pros to prevent that from happening. Retro review

Even more simple is that most people don't understand a lick about medical billing in the first place and explaining it is like banging a head into a wall. As you said aptly, you can explain it, but you can't understand it for them.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 hour ago, Voice of Reason said:

Perhaps you should look into the money set aside via the Cares ACT.  As I said above. 20% more money is paid for medicare patients who have covid than for those who do not.  That means that Aunt Annie, who needs hospital care for 3 days, but tests negative for covid (and is not on Medicare), has a 20% smaller bill than Grandma Gertrude (who IS on Medicare) who needs the same three days of treatment but she tested positive for covid.  Put both of them on a ventilator for three days, and Grandma Gertrude's bill will be about 3X as much.  

 

You can try and put whatever spin on it you choose, but the numbers are out there for the public to see.

 

And yes, I understand that caring for someone with covid is more labor-intensive than someone who doesn't have it.  But is it always 20% more?  (maybe that's just an average amount they came up with?)   But if someone comes in, gets tested and treated, is sent home, and later the test shows they have covid, 20% gets added to their bill, even if they quarantine at home (at least for medicare folk).  I have a neighbor who had a family member who was on the brink of death with Azlheimers back in April or so.  Said family member succumbed, but also had covid prior to death.  20% for care rendered even before the test was added to their bill.  (While I did not see the bill myself, my neighbor did, and I trust him to not make such up)

 

    We are going in circles here. They set aside 20% more because that is what they expect to pay.  I am not saying they won't bill more for treating someone hospitalized with Covid.  I am saying the Covid diagnosis is not the relevant factor. It is how sick the person is and how long they spend in hospital. It is that way for any illness. It's likely to be longer and more intensive treatment if you are hospitalized with Covid.

 

  

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,367]

1 minute ago, yuna628 said:

Even more simple is that most people don't understand a lick about medical billing in the first place and explaining it is like banging a head into a wall. As you said aptly, you can explain it, but you can't understand it for them.

No dear. Everyone here is an expert at international diplomacy,  microbiology, intellectual property rights, a whole range of prescription medicines and there proper use, CPT codes. Cyberhacking, production resource planning,  and on and on.lol

What little i know is becuse one of my ex wives was a retro review RN.

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,367]

3 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

    We are going in circles here. They set aside 20% more because that is what they expect to pay.  I am not saying they won't bill more for treating someone hospitalized with Covid.  I am saying the Covid diagnosis is not the relevant factor. It is how sick the person is and how long they spend in hospital. It is that way for any illness. It's likely to be longer and more intensive treatment if you are hospitalized with Covid.

 

  

Pfffft what do you know, i mean its not like you work in a hospital. 😃

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 hour ago, Nature Boy 2.0 said:

The simpler argument might be that applying false codes on an insurance claim is a felony and no hospital is going to risk losing its accreditation  and people going to jail over trying to systematically commit such widespread  claim fraud. Most hospitals have whole departments of medical pros to prevent that from happening. Retro review

 

     This is true, and on the other end, if someone is even remotely familiar with medicare billing at all, you know they are not giving 20% more reimbursement "just because".

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

2 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

    We are going in circles here. They set aside 20% more because that is what they expect to pay.  I am not saying they won't bill more for treating someone hospitalized with Covid.  I am saying the Covid diagnosis is not the relevant factor. It is how sick the person is and how long they spend in hospital. It is that way for any illness. It's likely to be longer and more intensive treatment if you are hospitalized with Covid.

 

  

If you'd stop chasing your tail and just admit that what I am saying is accurate, we could stop the spin class.  Or not, up to you.

 

They did not set aside 20% more.  They PAY 20% more.  And those payments are retroactive back to January.  

 

 

 

https://www.hfma.org/topics/news/2020/04/increased-medicare-payments-for-covid-19-care-to-stretch-back-to.html

 

They set aside $100 billion to assist hospitals with the extra costs, above and beyond the medicare 20%.  About $108,000 for every hospital bed in the US, in fact.

 

Quote

The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act contains a vast array of spending provisions, including an additional $100 billion for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund.  This new funding is designed to provide an influx of money to hospitals and other health care entities responding to the coronavirus pandemic. This $100 billion averages out to about $108,000 per hospital bed in the United States.

 

Hospitals across the country clearly need additional resources as they struggle to treat the surge of COVID-19 patients and prepare for a spike in patient load.  The $100 billion fund was established to help hospitals ramp up quickly, in response to new demands, giving the Secretary of Health and Human Services broad discretion over how the $100 billion fund will be distributed, although it is not yet clear how these funds will be allocated.

https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/a-look-at-the-100-billion-for-hospitals-in-the-cares-act/

[Steeleballz 7,550]

25 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

If you'd stop chasing your tail and just admit that what I am saying is accurate, we could stop the spin class.  Or not, up to you.

 

They did not set aside 20% more.  They PAY 20% more.  And those payments are retroactive back to January.  

 

 

 

https://www.hfma.org/topics/news/2020/04/increased-medicare-payments-for-covid-19-care-to-stretch-back-to.html

 

They set aside $100 billion to assist hospitals with the extra costs, above and beyond the medicare 20%.  About $108,000 for every hospital bed in the US, in fact.

 

https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/a-look-at-the-100-billion-for-hospitals-in-the-cares-act/

 

       This is kind of like me reading the in flight safety rules and then telling the pilot how to fly the plane correctly. I know they pay more for Covid treatment. You keep posting what they pay for treatment and you keep arguing that they are paying that due to the diagnosis. Those are two different things.

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

The complexities of healthcare are as intentional as the tax code. It's one reason why it's an absolute mess and it overwhelmingly benefits the same socioeconomic classes the most. 

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,367]

32 minutes ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

The complexities of healthcare are as intentional as the tax code. It's one reason why it's an absolute mess and it overwhelmingly benefits the same socioeconomic classes the most. 

Uhhhh yeah.  Doooo what ?