Source? I'm a moderate. A moderate understands you can't have it both ways. You can't ask a business to remove profit while bitching about socialized healthcare.
There are numerous sources on this. One such source is the HHS official website for CARES act. Or, if you don't want to read through that (where you will certainly find what I have stated) you may read many different articles on the subject, including this one from USA Today at the top of the google search on this topic. A quote for your convenience: 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." Now, the above quote was fact checked by numerous sources. Ask FactCheck weighed in April 21: "The figures cited by Jensen generally square with estimated Medicare payments for COVID-19 hospitalizations, based on average Medicare payments for patients with similar diagnoses." PolitiFact reporter Tom Kertscher wrote, "The dollar amounts Jensen cited are roughly what we found in an analysis published April 7 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a leading source of health information." You're anything but moderate. At least, that isn't how you act around here.
So a hospital takes on more liability and body handling costs for a novel virus death, what's the point here? You do understand intubation is a rather invasive process involving additional expense? How does the intubation cost difference from other procedures involving ventilator use? The fact you're triggered by moderate stances only reflects how far the right has moved from center. Moderate now look as radical leftists to fascists
Seeing that hospital admissions in the U.S. currently require a positive COVID test in the facility to get the higher Medicare payments. The stipend can hardly be considered an incentive to claim that patients without COVID are being listed as having COVID.
Curious, but you believe I'm "triggered" because I've responded to your query in a polite and civil tone? Does this mean any time someone responds to you at all, they are triggered? Or do you get to assign "triggered" to anyone simply because you don't like what they have to say? Please note that I am not triggered when I ask you this question. You're really not very consequential. And there's no way you're a moderate, no matter what you claim - again, going from the way you post on this forum which may, or may not, be representative of the creature you are in person. As for my point, it hasn't changed since the original post. Hospitals make money on elective surgery. You take that away and provide them a way to make more money based on the amount of COVID patients you have. So you shouldn't be surprised when they run the throughput of those patients at as high a volume as possible. "Show me the incentive and I'll show you the behavior." It's really quite simple. Even for a moderate!
Are you saying that all patients at the hospital listed as COVID were documented and audited as being COVID positive? None were ever listed as "COVID probable"? How about ventilated patients? All were documented and audited as having been on a ventilator? And death certificates? All were audited? Because medicare fraud is all over the place. I can provide sources if you wish. And if we want to assume that COVID interactions with Medicare are somehow not subject to the massive fraud that takes place in other Medicare payments, we can. I just don't know how believable that statement would be.
So what is your proposal to reduce Medicare fraud and ensure that any COVID-related payments are only paid for patients who are COVID positive? Requiring evidence of a COVID positive PCR test seems to be a reasonable step to provide proof. Are you simply going to state that all the hospitals are merely going to fudge the records no matter what proof is required? Are you claiming that every major medical institution in the U.S. with an ICU is committing medicare fraud? Seeing that these institutions (ignoring HCA/Columbia back in the 90s) are the least likely to commit medicare fraud and have departments dedicated to auditing their billing. Most Medicare fraud is done by equipment providers and small practices -- not hospitals.