Hospital Payments and the COVID-19 Death Count
Q: Are hospitals inflating the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths so they can be paid more?
A: Recent legislation pays hospitals higher Medicare rates for COVID-19 patients and treatment, but there is no evidence of fraudulent reporting.
FULL QUESTION
Are hospitals getting 13,000 per patient if they write that on the diagnosis is COVID19 on the patient’s chart, and 35,000 for each patient if they are on ventilators?
I keep seeing posts in social media claiming that hospitals are over-stating covid-19 deaths because the they are paid more for these deaths … The YouTube video link here is attributed to Fox News with the headline “US: Hospitals Get Paid More to List Patients as COVID-19…” Can you provide any clarification?
FULL ANSWER
A Minnesota state senator’s recent interview on Fox News about Medicare payments for COVID-19 hospitalizations has generated a frenzy of headlines on social media suggesting that hospitals may have a financial motivation when it comes to classifying cases or deaths as related to COVID-19.
One website ran a story headlined, “US Hospitals Getting Paid More to Label Cause of Death as ‘Coronavirus.'” It called the information “disturbing” and the interview “bone-chilling.”
Numerous readers have asked us about such claims, some of which imply that hospitals are making money by simply patients.
