Boots & Sabers

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Owen

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1021, 23 Dec 20

COVID Surge?

Do you believe this?

An alarming new red wave map shows that the vast majority of the United States is currently one huge COVID-19 hotspot – as the country recorded its second deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic with 3,400 deaths and President-elect Joe Biden warned the ‘darkest days’ are still ahead.

The map data, which is included in the latest community report from the White House COVID-19 Task Force, tracks areas of concern on a county level across the country based on recent cases and testing history.

It shows that every state currently has counties that fall into the ‘sustained hotspot’ category, which means the task force classifies them as communities that have a high number of cases and may be at an even higher risk of overwhelming their local hospitals.

Increasingly, I don’t. With the clear lax behavior of people supposedly “in the know” and personal observation, I just don’t buy the hype. Then you get stories like this:

According to the video, Jensen and Franson looked at 2,800 “death certificate data points” and found that 800 of them did not have COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause of death, but were still counted as COVID-19 deaths. That means, Jensen said, that those 800 people may have died with COVID-19, but not of COVID-19.

“That would mean that we’ve had the number inflated by 40%,” said Jensen, who explained that the “key diagnosis on a death certificate is the UCOD,” which stands for underlying cause of death.

In one case, a person who was ejected from a vehicle and died was “counted as a COVID death” because the virus was in his system, Franson claimed.

“I have other examples where COVID isn’t the underlying cause of death. We have a fall. Another example we have a fresh water drowning. We have dementia. We have a stroke and multi-organ failure,” she said.

The two lawmakers concluded their video, which has been viewed more than 200,000 times on Facebook, by expressing support for an audit of the data.

We are in a pandemic of an aggressive virus, but the numbers being put out are massively misleading. We have also failed as a society to put those numbers into perspective. Everything in life is about weighing the consequences and making compromises. We have failed to do that with our response to COVID-19.

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1021, 23 December 2020

22 Comments

  1. Kevin Scheunemann

    Hospitals are incentivized to declare deaths COVID related.

    That is why the data cannot be trusted.

     

  2. Jason

    Interestingly, a study was just released that shows that mask wearing is far less effective than advertised.  But but but science!  Oh and don’t kill someone elses Gramma by patriotically wearing your ineffective mask!  Oh and Joe Biden is going to request we all wear masks for 100 days!

     

    So good!

  3. Mar

    I know in our county, the cases of of the Chinese/liberal virus has gone up but the number of deaths has gone down and we are completely open with no mask mandate.
    So, more people have been exposed to the virus but we are having more success in controlling it, without the tyranny.

  4. Le Roi du Nord

    “Hospitals are incentivized to declare deaths COVID related.”

    Proof?  Or just more wackadoodle nonsense?

  5. Tuerqas

    No, there is proof.  It is marked as aid to the Hospitals to deal with Covid cases.  Every death from Covid assigns somewhere around $350 (I believe) to the Hospital declaring it.  So it is hard to find under ‘conspiracy’ or ‘right wing nut theories’ on the internet.  My doctor at Aurora confirmed that when I asked it in October.  I believe he said it was in the first stimulus package.  And on the surface, with the bath that Hospitals went through in lost revenue from Covid, it seems like a good idea.  Personally, it seems a little too calculated to me, though, my conspiracy brain cries foul that the CDC required Covid to be on the list of possible causes of death whenever possibly present and that Doctors are then given literal bribes, er, incentives to choose it as the cause.  It seems like an obvious ruse to get the professionals on the Gov’t side.

    I don’t feel like going through the morass that was the first stimulus bill, though, you can find that yourself if you want.

  6. Le Roi du Nord

    T:

    Well, that isn’t what my physician says happens, nor does the administrator of the local hospital, part of a Catholic run system in the midwest.  Guess we have to agree to disagree on this as well.

    But since k made the claim, sans any proof, let’s see if he answers.

  7. Merlin

    The CARES Act created a $100 billion fund to assist providers with Medicare reimbursements and the uninsured for COVID-related treatments. The amounts provided were 20% more than typical reimbursements.

    It’s the “COVID-related” that presents the wiggle room for providers in their coding. If they’re called on a given case’s coding at a later date they can always apologize and return the excess reimbursement, but in the meantime they had use of the funds as operating capital while they were denied, by government edict, their normal flow of capital.

    They also claim that COVID costs greatly exceeded reimbursement, which is probably true. Their claims of not abusing the reimbursement program are likely not true, but realistically, what’s the probability that they’ll ever face an audit challenging the fraud? That hovers somewhere right around zero. Nobody is going to look past the simple denials.

     

  8. Mark Hoefert

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/04/24/fact-check-medicare-hospitals-paid-more-covid-19-patients-coronavirus/3000638001/

    The coronavirus relief legislation created a 20% premium, or add-on, for COVID-19 Medicare patients.
    Ask FactCheck reporter Angelo Fichera, who interviewed Jensen, noted, “Jensen said he did not think that hospitals were intentionally misclassifying cases for financial reasons. But that’s how his comments have been widely interpreted and paraded on social media.”
    Ask FactCheck’s conclusion: “Recent legislation pays hospitals higher Medicare rates for COVID-19 patients and treatment, but there is no evidence of fraudulent reporting.”
    Julie Aultman, a member of the editorial board of the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics, told PolitiFact it is “very unlikely that physicians or hospitals will falsify data or be motivated by money to do so.”
    We rate the claim that hospitals get paid more if patients are listed as COVID-19 and on ventilators as TRUE.
    Hospitals and doctors do get paid more for Medicare patients diagnosed with COVID-19 or if it’s considered presumed they have COVID-19 absent a laboratory-confirmed test, and three times more if the patients are placed on a ventilator to cover the cost of care and loss of business resulting from a shift in focus to treat COVID-19 cases.

  9. Jason

    Way to pivot on to something new Leroy.  You just got scooped by Merlin and Mark on your stupid claim about your stupid doctor and your stupid hospital administrator.  Any comment on that, or do you want to now debate masks?   You fucking hick.

  10. dad29

    Apparently LeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeRoy cannot read.

    ABC10 can verify that hospitals do get reimbursed for coronavirus related care, which unfortunately includes deaths.

    His local hospital admin lied to him–or, if he’s like LeeeeeeeeeeeeRoy, maybe he can’t read, either.

  11. Kevin Scheunemann

    Nord,

    Will you apologize for your denial of data?

  12. Jason

    >Sure j, believing faux et al will get you in trouble.

    Leroy, you’re still showing off just how stupid you are.  I hope 21 is better for you that this year has been.  You’ve embarrassed yourself more than anyone I can think of this year.

     

    Oh, and I’m not in trouble, haven’t been in trouble, and since you’ve never met me, you saying I will get in trouble is a lie.  Grow up.

  13. Mar

    The lying sociopath says “nor does the administrator of the local hospital, part of a Catholic run system in the midwest.”
    Well,I did some checking, and there is only 1 hospital system that operates in Northern WI, that is run by Catholics.
    It operates country wide, not just the midwest.
    So, the sociopath lies again. Probably trying to make itself look important.
    Shows once again, what a pathetic liar the sociopath is.

  14. Kevin Scheunemann

    No apology Nord?

     

  15. Le Roi du Nord

    Well mar, tell us what hospital that is, cuz you are wrong.

  16. Mar

    Well, sociopath,you got it wrong.
    What is the name of the hospital chain that is in your community?
    Otherwise, shut up, liar.

  17. Le Roi du Nord

    Sorry mar, you made the claim,

    “Well,I did some checking, and there is only 1 hospital system that operates in Northern WI, that is run by Catholics.”,

    you show the proof.

     

  18. Jason

    >you show the proof.

    Like when you asked for proof for Kevin’s statement, and got it in spades? You’re still trying to claim your fictitious doctor and local hospital admin are more proof that T’s, Merlin’s, and Mark’s proof? Hahha you are such a fool.

  19. Mar

    Well, as Gomer Pyle says “Surprise, surprise, surprise, the sociopath is caught lying again.
    He’s like that emotionally disabled kid in first grade who craves attention and will say and do anything for attention.

  20. Tuerqas

    Whew, I am glad we disagree on this one Le Roi, cuz I wouldn’t want to be on your side here. Even your own link proves our point. It stated straight up that Hospitals are receiving additional money for Covid cases. The only thing it had going for your argument was that it is ‘not verified whether hospitals are falsifying records’ and that was not really the point. Anyone who read the CDC guidelines knows that if Covid is likely present then Covid must be listed as one of the UCODs and therefore legally eligible to be listed as the primary cause of death. Hospitals are not falsifying anything, they are following updated guidelines. (And what hospital has 1 administrator?)

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