Hospital charges

April 26, 2020


Some people are posting about hospitals charging more if someone is diagonsed with Covid-19.
A comment from another person on this issue:

They should.

You know how garages charge for mechanics’ time based on the average time for fixing your car’s particular problem? Medicare pays the same way.

Medicare has figured out the average cost per patient for thousands of different diagnoses: how many days the patient should spend in the hospital, the level of nursing care, the doctors’ various services for diagnosis and treatment, the cost of medications and supplies. Medicare hands the hospital that average payment, and for the most part it’s up to the hospital to get you well enough to go home for that amount of money.

COVID is so infectious that it requires hospitals to dedicate more space and more materials than it would for regular pneumonia. Because antibiotics generally cure pneumonia but not COVID, COVID takes longer in the hospital to resolve. Everything about it is more expensive, and there’s no conspiracy about it.

Medicare reviews charts to make sure diagnoses are accurate. A hospital may get away with a wrong diagnosis every now and then, but if it makes very many, Medicare will spot it for sure. Then they can penalize the hospital or even file fraud charges.

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Another Facebook comment about this:

I learned when working Home Health (nurse for 35 years) that Medicare reimbursements have ALWAYS been graded to ACUITY. And also, compensation varies regionally. ........YA KNOW WHY??????
Because patients who are more ACUTELY ILL need more intensive care, and it costs a shitload more to treat them with best practices.

When are “we” going to learn that there are EVIL, EVIL people and groups who will take an existing truth and desecrate it for their own agenda. So-

In case anybody doesn’t get it- screaming caps and all: Yes, Medicare pays more for the sickest patients. They always have. And for this we should be grateful.
You’re welcome.