However, even with my 100MB wired internet connection on a modern computer with tons of CPU and RAM, that page loaded painfully slow, as it is inundated with constantly loading and reloading ads, banners, etc. , and overall it is just a piss-poor web design, that unfortunately have plagued so many modern websites.
Thus for your convenience, the pertinent portion of the above article has been pasted here below:
From article published in USA Today on April 24, 2020:
The coronavirus relief legislation created a 20% premium, or add-on, for COVID-19 Medicare patients.
A claim [that: "hospitals get paid more if patients are listed as COVID-19 and on ventilators"] was published April 9 by The Spectator, a conservative publication. WorldNetDaily shared it April 10 and, according to Snopes, a related meme was shared on social media in mid-April.
Jensen took it to his own Facebook page April 15, saying, in part:
"How can anyone not believe that increasing the number of COVID-19 deaths may create an avenue for states to receive a larger portion of federal dollars. Already some states are complaining that they are not getting enough of the CARES Act dollars because they are having significantly more proportional COVID-19 deaths."
Jensen clarified in the video that he doesn`t think physicians are "gaming the system" so much as other "players," such as hospital administrators, who he said may pressure physicians to cite all diagnoses, including "probable" COVID-19, on discharge papers or death certificates to get the higher Medicare allocation allowed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. Past practice, Jensen said, did not include probabilities.
Our ruling: True
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.
This higher allocation of funds has been made possible under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act through a Medicare 20% add-on to its regular payment for COVID-19 patients, as verified by USA TODAY through the American Hospital Association Special Bulletin on the topic.
Our fact-check sources
The Spectator: "Hospitals get more to list patients as COVID-19 and three times as much if the patient goes on ventilator"
The World Net Daily: "Hospitals get paid more to list patients as COVID-19"
Snopes: "Is Medicare paying hospitals $13K for patients diagnosed with COVID-19, $39K for those on ventilators"
PolitiFact: "Hospitals get paid more to list patients as COVID-19"
Kaiser Health News: "Estimated cost for treating the uninsured hospitalized with COVID-19"
Factcheck.org: "Hospital Payments and the COVID-19 Death Count"
Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: "Guidance for Certifying Death Due to COVID-19"
Verywellhealth.com: "How a DRG determines how much a hospital gets paid"
American Hospital Association Special Bulletin
American Hospital Association special bulletin.
Email response from Marty Makary, a surgeon and professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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