If a Medicare patient is diagnosed with – or even presumed to have contracted — coronavirus, hospitals across the United States are given more money from the federal government to treat that patient, economic assessments show. That amount can as much as triple if the patient requires a ventilator, making some wonder whether there is a financial impetus to overstate coronavirus numbers, with others calling such potential abuse “unlikely.”
More @ Ortho Spine News
Been in healthcare 4+ decades. Hospitals work VERY hard to bill for EVERY possible reimbursement code possible. Large hospitals hire teams of people called "coders" who pore over the regulations to find ANY possible billing code they can submit to increase reimbursement. Small hospitals will often hire an outside company to do the same. But large or small ALL hospitals will bill out ANY codeable charge they can conceivably use to increase reimbursement. If there is an additional reimbursement code for a patient who has Covid 19 you can bet the farm that EVERY patient who might REMOTELY be infected....confirmed or not....will have that code added to their bill. You can take THAT fact to the bank.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information.
DeleteAn age-old management principle: You get what you reward.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteMoney talks.
ReplyDeletePrint away. Just numbers.........:(
Delete