Current Events Thread

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mict085 said:
Without my witty banter and Steve’s paranoid fear mongering, there would be no traffic on this board.
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Paranoid fear-mongering? We have had more than 1,000 deaths per day in the last 8 days in the United States. 50% of the patients in the hospital where I work are there with Covid-19. Our numbers in Oklahoma are currently steady. The one bit of good news is that after the mask mandate in Oklahoma City their numbers have declined somewhat.

I've been watching Texas and it's hard to say what is happening there. Their testing has gone way down and their positivity rate has gone way up. Still waiting to see what's going on, I hate to speculate.

The reason I haven't been here much is because I've been super-busy, but I do appreciate your "witty" banter.
 
steverocks35 said:
Paranoid fear-mongering? We have had more than 1,000 deaths per day in the last 8 days in the United States. 50% of the patients in the hospital where I work are there with Covid-19. Our numbers in Oklahoma are currently steady. The one bit of good news is that after the mask mandate in Oklahoma City their numbers have declined somewhat.

I've been watching Texas and it's hard to say what is happening there. Their testing has gone way down and their positivity rate has gone way up. Still waiting to see what's going on, I hate to speculate.

The reason I haven't been here much is because I've been super-busy, but I do appreciate your "witty" banter.
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50% of your hospitalized patients have Covid? What is you hospital doing so wrong? Most hospitals that I know and the ones I’ve worked in have nowhere near that number. You’re either lying or that hospital sucks terribly bad. Perhaps a full review of its practices are in order to get to the root problem. Maybe the problem is in the lab. Is there someone in the lab that’s contaminating samples or inflating the numbers? Someone should get to the bottom of that mess immediately.
 
mict085 said:
50% of your hospitalized patients have Covid? What is you hospital doing so wrong? Most hospitals that I know and the ones I’ve worked in have nowhere near that number. You’re either lying or that hospital sucks terribly bad. Perhaps a full review of its practices are in order to get to the root problem. Maybe the problem is in the lab. Is there someone in the lab that’s contaminating samples or inflating the numbers? Someone should get to the bottom of that mess immediately.
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Our hospital sucks for admitting Covid-19 patients? WTF are you talking about? We are getting admits from other hospitals as well as nursing homes and walk-ins.
 
steverocks35 said:
Our hospital sucks for admitting Covid-19 patients? WTF are you talking about? We are getting admits from other hospitals as well as nursing homes and walk-ins.
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Someone should investigate the lab at your hospital. Seems the numbers are being inflated or the care at that hospital is subpar.
 
mict085 said:
50% of your hospitalized patients have Covid? What is you hospital doing so wrong? Most hospitals that I know and the ones I’ve worked in have nowhere near that number. You’re either lying or that hospital sucks terribly bad. Perhaps a full review of its practices are in order to get to the root problem. Maybe the problem is in the lab. Is there someone in the lab that’s contaminating samples or inflating the numbers? Someone should get to the bottom of that mess immediately.
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Here’s your answer.

Not saying Steverocks35’s hospital is doing it. But the reimbursement differential is too great for me to believe all hospitals are not finding ways to justify a Covid diagnosis, even when the patient was severely compromised by other complications. If one or more Covid symptom is present, it would be too easy to assign that diagnosis to a patient and move on without investigating further. This article will tell you why they’re doing it.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ore-covid-19-patients-coronavirus/3000638001/

Jensen said, "Hospital administrators might well want to see COVID-19 attached to a discharge summary or a death certificate. Why? Because if it's a straightforward, garden-variety pneumonia that a person is admitted to the hospital for – if they're Medicare – typically, the diagnosis-related group lump sum payment would be $5,000. But if it's COVID-19 pneumonia, then it's $13,000, and if that COVID-19 pneumonia patient ends up on a ventilator, it goes up to $39,000.".
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AdaSooner said:
Here’s your answer.

Not saying Steverocks35’s hospital is doing it. But the reimbursement differential is too great for me to believe all hospitals are not finding ways to justify a Covid diagnosis, even when the patient was severely compromised by other complications. If one or more Covid symptom is present, it would be too easy to assign that diagnosis to a patient and move on without investigating further. This article will tell you why they’re doing it.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ore-covid-19-patients-coronavirus/3000638001/
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This has been debunked and isn't close to true. The reason compensation is higher for Covid-19 patients is because it costs a lot more to treat them as inpatients.

The reason we have so many cases here is because there was a huge outbreak at the Claremore Veterans' Center. It's like a large nursing home for veterans. Also, there are at least (as of last Friday I haven't heard today) 50 employees of the vet center there who are out with Covid-19. We have detailed a group of nurses and other staff to go work there to cover their shifts. It's a big mess.
 
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steverocks35 said:
This has been debunked and isn't close to true. The reason compensation is higher for Covid-19 patients is because it costs a lot more to treat them as inpatients.
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What was debunked?
I don't doubt that it costs more to treat them.
Are you saying hospitals are not getting a fixed amount to treat each case?
 
steverocks35 said:
This has been debunked and isn't close to true. The reason compensation is higher for Covid-19 patients is because it costs a lot more to treat them as inpatients.

The reason we have so many cases here is because there was a huge outbreak at the Claremore Veterans' Center. It's like a large nursing home for veterans. Also, there are at least (as of last Friday I haven't heard today) 50 employees of the vet center there who are out with Covid-19. We have detailed a group of nurses and other staff to go work there to cover their shifts. It's a big mess.
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Debunked by who or what agency? Healthcare providers have been scamming the system for years. You should know that, but you can’t possibly know if every hospital in this country is following the proper guidelines in billing for patients.

I was careful to point out that your hospital, or the VA for that matter, is not implicated in this article, nor did I imply either entity is guilty in anyway.
 
steverocks35 said:
This has been debunked and isn't close to true. The reason compensation is higher for Covid-19 patients is because it costs a lot more to treat them as inpatients.

The reason we have so many cases here is because there was a huge outbreak at the Claremore Veterans' Center. It's like a large nursing home for veterans. Also, there are at least (as of last Friday I haven't heard today) 50 employees of the vet center there who are out with Covid-19. We have detailed a group of nurses and other staff to go work there to cover their shifts. It's a big mess.
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It hasn’t been debunked. Everyone that works in a hospital Knows how hospitals work and they also know COVID money is real. The money also influences how patients are coded. Hospitals code everything to capture every dollar.
 
Yep...

They baffle you with BS bascally until there is so much crap on a bill that you don't even know where to start.

For example on a typical hospital bill for delivering a child. Everything is basically charged twice. The bed and room are charged for botht he mother and baby. The doctor is charged for both mother and baby. Heck, they even tried to charge me a nursery fee when the hospital doesn't even have a nursey for newborns! They tried to tell me that the nursery fee is for anytmie the baby leaves the room. The problem was the baby never left our room. It is all BS and if you push hard enough, they will give you a good discount if you can pay in full.
 
SoonerBounce13 said:
Yep...

They baffle you with BS bascally until there is so much crap on a bill that you don't even know where to start.

For example on a typical hospital bill for delivering a child. Everything is basically charged twice. The bed and room are charged for botht he mother and baby. The doctor is charged for both mother and baby. Heck, they even tried to charge me a nursery fee when the hospital doesn't even have a nursey for newborns! They tried to tell me that the nursery fee is for anytmie the baby leaves the room. The problem was the baby never left our room. It is all BS and if you push hard enough, they will give you a good discount if you can pay in full.
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Yea I had all sorts of disputes when we had our son in Tulsa. I got refunded quite a bit. One of the refunds was them charging me an insane amount of money (as in over $100) for petroleum jelly, lol. They pad the hell out of that thing and hope you don't complain.

The very first time I went to the ER was in 2003 with horrible back pain, which I found out was a kidney stone. I was only 19 at the time. They literally bartered a deal with me. I had no insurance. They said "Ok we will cut that down to $1,400 if you pay now"... I didn't have that. They said, "ok, we will settle for $600 if you pay now"... I paid $600 and left.
 
Billing can be gamed, which is not new. COVID, as a whole, has not been profitable for hospitals.
 
steverocks35 said:
This has been debunked and isn't close to true. The reason compensation is higher for Covid-19 patients is because it costs a lot more to treat them as inpatients.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by debunked?

Yes, it often does cost more to treat COVID patients, but it doesn't cost more to add one more word to the diagnosis.
 
thebigabd said:
Yea I had all sorts of disputes when we had our son in Tulsa. I got refunded quite a bit. One of the refunds was them charging me an insane amount of money (as in over $100) for petroleum jelly, lol. They pad the hell out of that thing and hope you don't complain.

The very first time I went to the ER was in 2003 with horrible back pain, which I found out was a kidney stone. I was only 19 at the time. They literally bartered a deal with me. I had no insurance. They said "Ok we will cut that down to $1,400 if you pay now"... I didn't have that. They said, "ok, we will settle for $600 if you pay now"... I paid $600 and left.
Click to expand...

Yep...it is so crazy and frustrating.

You won't find me saying we don't need total healthcare reform. It is broken. very broken.

I just don't know how to do it
 
Eielson said:
Billing can be gamed, which is not new. COVID, as a whole, has not been profitable for hospitals.
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I believe you.

I don’t blame hospitals, especially in rural areas where Medicare case loads are typically higher, for taking advantage of every dime they can get. I was attempting to answer mict’s question, not point an accusing finger at anyone.
 
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