Coronavirus

Discussion in 'West Mall' started by Clean, Jan 28, 2020.

  1. towersniper

    towersniper 100+ Posts

    Ditto Mr. Deez. Also, the companies prefer that insurers go to the doc before a minor problem becomes a huge expense. Unfortunately, people will ignore that tiny lump on that left testicle rather than pay $100 to their GP to get it checked. They go when the lump gets to golf ball size, and a $20,000 course of treatment for early stage cancer has become $150,000 for advanced. People are foolish. The insurance companies know this.
     
  2. towersniper

    towersniper 100+ Posts

    LOL! I was born in Worster, Mass. too! (Stupid joke in there. It's "Worcester " - also pronounced "Wooster" or almost "Wister" , never mind. It's a Yankee thang.)
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2020
  3. OUBubba

    OUBubba 5,000+ Posts

    The costs for hospitals are known. Medicare pays at cost. Most insurance companies now pay at Medicare + negotiated %. Hospital based infections and re-admissions leave a financial mark. Hospitals are motivated to get patients in, get them out and keep them out.

    hospitals that have no uninsured can charge a lower rate as they have no unfunded care to offset. In Tulsa the cheapest options are also the best for most things. Their two physician owned hospitals cater to patients with insurance and don’t have ER’s to attract patients. They can offer better care cheaper.
     
  4. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    One issue is the correct taking of sample with a swab to the very back of your sinus cavity
     
  5. SabreHorn

    SabreHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Bubba,

    Medicare "makes the market" and sets the rate. Thanks to Pete Stark there are fewer healthcare facilities owned by physicians and fewer types of business opportunities for physicians. They are all reimbursed the same. Bill $900 for a CT, accept $165. Stark Law left doctors a few things like surgery centers, LTACHs, certain hospitals with proper structuring. Then there is the insurance opportunities - not reimbursement.

    Unless you are a level I trauma center, there's no reason to have an ER.

    Why are there so few ventilators for this epidemic? Because of the Medicare reimbursement. Hospital makes a lot of money the first few months, then is stuck with the patient.In fact, a decade ago, hospitals in Denver, Dallas, Amarillo, OKC, KC were sending patients & cash to nursing homes in smaller Texas towns to get rid of them.
     
  6. Monahorns

    Monahorns 5,000+ Posts

    Our medical system is broke. Too many fingers in the pie to get it fixed.
     
  7. SabreHorn

    SabreHorn 10,000+ Posts

    You have no idea how bad it really is. I visited DC in the late 90s when my Congressman Bill Archer was head of the Ways & Means. I showed Archer how moving 7-8% of Medicare funding would save Medicare 40-45% of its budget. It was not radical and required very little effort or cost, but Big Pharma and whores like MD Anderson shot it down.

    Get into the bowels of MD Anderson. You'll be so busy throwing up you won't have time for HornFans. They do a lot of good for a lot of people, but there is a dark under belly.

    WestMall comment - Archer was my congressman; 28 years in DC and never introduced a single piece of legislation. He never failed to ask for donations or cash the checks.
     
  8. Monahorns

    Monahorns 5,000+ Posts

    That means that if Medicare didn't exist that Big Pharma and MD Anderson couldn't dictate things. They would have to compete with innovators.
     
  9. SabreHorn

    SabreHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Not even close. They exist and dictate around Medicare. That's why certain providers don't take Medicare - they don't want to deal with the federal government, there special ******** accounting among other things.

    Medicare sets the reimbursement rates for managed care.
     
  10. OUBubba

    OUBubba 5,000+ Posts

    Medicare rate is cost based reimbursement. Your rate is estimated. At the end of the year the auditors compare your costs retroactively and then CMS either gives you a check and then adjusts your rate up a smidge or they adjust your rate down. Hospitals are motivated to be efficient and frugal to keep their Medicare rate quasi low to be competitive in the market place for the Blue Cross/Blue Shields of the world. But, not too low. They want to be in a sweet spot.
     
  11. Monahorns

    Monahorns 5,000+ Posts

    So "they" dictate and Medicare sets rates? That is a contradiction. Dictating around Medicare just sounds like negotiation and not sometimes not agreeing. But ignores how the medical industry uses Medicare and other government regulation to keep competitors out.
     
  12. SabreHorn

    SabreHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Bubba,

    I understand cost reports all too well. They are used for certain things. At one time they were used or home health, but are now just a shield. Medicare has fixed rates for things like imaging, surgical procedures, drugs.

    Medicare is so damned worried that someone might make a profit off them that they have created a cottage industry in cost reports. You file, you and Medicare agree to reimbursement, you build a business model, and half way through the year they lower your rate and bankrupt your company.
     
  13. Mr. Deez

    Mr. Deez Beer Prophet

    My kindergartner attends a US Department of Defense Dependents School in Germany. I think his teacher is doing a great job. We get daily assignments and instructions (which I think are written by curriculum specialists, not his teachers), and I sit down with him and make sure he reads everything correctly and does the work.

    It can be pretty tedious at times, because I have to direct him the whole time. However, his teacher is very responsive when we need help and does two virtual meetings with him each week. Under the circumstances, it's not bad.
     
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  14. LongestHorn

    LongestHorn 2,500+ Posts

    :popcorn:
     
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  15. Sangre Naranjada

    Sangre Naranjada 10,000+ Posts

    Your time out was far too short.
     
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  16. Clean

    Clean 5,000+ Posts



    If they don’t get the swab halfway through your skull, as pictured, it probably returns a false negative.


     
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    Last edited: Apr 4, 2020
  17. UTChE96

    UTChE96 2,500+ Posts

    Well, every crisis seems to highlight the same thing. The Federal government is completely incompetent and it's foolish to expect otherwise.
     
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  18. theiioftx

    theiioftx Sponsor Deputy

    I have a business partner whose wife’s family is from and lives in Spain. His MIL is 83 and got Covid. Was in the ICU in Madrid for three days. Her doctor told the family she would likely pass soon. Apparently, her husband was allowed to buy an experimental drug and authorized the doctor to give it. Within two hours, his wife recovered.
     
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  19. Joe Fan

    Joe Fan 10,000+ Posts

    2020 is not even half done yet
    [​IMG]
     
  20. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin

    Two hours! Wow. Do you know what the meds were?
     
  21. theiioftx

    theiioftx Sponsor Deputy

    There was difficulty in translation, but pretty sure it was Favipiravir.
     
    • poop poop x 1
  22. horninchicago

    horninchicago 10,000+ Posts

    The guy who did mine has certainly studied that image.
     
    • Funny Funny x 4
  23. Clean

    Clean 5,000+ Posts

    I had sinus surgery in the 80’s, back before it was just day surgery. In those days, you had packing up your sinuses for 3 days after the surgery. The end of the packing almost stuck out the end of your nostrils. It was gross.

    when it came time to remove the packing, you had to go back to the doctor’s office. He gave me a metal bowl to hold under my chin. He then took some forceps, grabbed the packing, and pulled it out the end of my nose. It felt like he was pulling my brain out through my nose. Then a bunch of blood and other stuff came rushing out my nose into the bowl. My wife, who was in the room with me, said she almost threw up. It was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced. And, you still had the other nostril to go!
     
    • WTF? WTF? x 3
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  24. LongestHorn

    LongestHorn 2,500+ Posts

    Cold medicine? No one believes you.
     
  25. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    That’s a wrap. Shut down thread.
     
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  26. Garmel

    Garmel 5,000+ Posts

    Read up on Favipiravir and its effect on Covid-19.
     
  27. LongestHorn

    LongestHorn 2,500+ Posts

    Post links or STFU
     
    • poop poop x 1
  28. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin

    Maybe you still don’t get it but this is the last warning for you. Keep it civil or find another forum.
     
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  29. theiioftx

    theiioftx Sponsor Deputy

    Who let you back in?
     
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  30. Garmel

    Garmel 5,000+ Posts

    Wow! Sounds like somebody's mad. All you have to do is use Google. That's not too hard, is it?
     

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