American Medical Association rips Trump's claim that doctors inflating COVID numbers

[left-of-center2012]

The American Medical Association (AMA) on Friday issued a scathing statement condemning President Trump’s claim that doctors are purposefully inflating coronavirus case numbers, calling the suggestion “malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided.” Trump, while speaking at a rally in Waterford Township, Mich., on Friday, argued without evidence that doctors are improperly counting coronavirus deaths for monetary gain.

"Our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID. You know that, right? I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say 'I'm sorry but everybody dies of COVID,'" he said. Trump argued that other countries put less of an emphasis on COVID-19 as a cause of death compared to the U.S., adding, "with us, when in doubt, 'choose COVID.' It's true." Trump pushed a similar claim during a rally in Wisconsin last weekend, saying "doctors get more money and hospitals get more money" if COVID-19 is listed as a cause of death.

Susan Bailey, the president of the AMA, pushed back on Trump's claims, pointing to work physicians, nurses and frontline health care workers have done during the pandemic to treat their patients.

“They did it because duty called and because of the sacred oath they took. The suggestion that doctors—in the midst of a public health crisis—are overcounting COVID-19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge,” Bailey said in a statement Friday without directly naming the president.

The AMA, the country’s largest doctors group, has criticized the Trump administration before. In August, the group blasted the federal government's guidance that asymptomatic individuals do not need to be tested for the coronavirus ...

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/523740-american-medical-association-rips-trump-claim-that-doctors-are

[malaise]

1. About time - The AMA has been way too passive about Killa Con's lies about this

pandemic.
That is all

[Shermann]

2. 100,000 cases a day now....KA-CHING!!! nt

[ret5hd]

3. How, exactly, does a doctor make more money if the patient dies???

I don't get how this even starts to make sense in ANYONES mind...I am utterly baffled.

[SheltieLover]

4. Projection?

Perhaps it is being paid bonuses by puppet master?

[Shermann]

6. It's the Underpants Gnomes Business Plan for Coronavirus

Phase 1) Inflate coronavirus case numbers
Phase 2) ?
Phase 3) Profit

[Hoyt]

5. trump is right that hospitals get more money for CV19 than say viral pneumonia. But

But there are some severe penalties for falsifying records if the patient doesn't have CV19 or that is not the main reason for them being in the hospital.

Essentially, there is an average payment rate for each kind of disease (with modifications for comorbidities and other factors). CV19 pays more than pneumonia, appendicitis, etc. But Medicare and other payers review claims for reimbursement for evidence of so-called upcoding to achieve enhanced reimbursement.

However, doctors don't get paid more for a given type service based upon diagnoses. He's totally wrong there.

Like everything with trump, he heard something and didn't care about the facts. It sounded like a good excuse for his poor handling of CV19.

[Shermann]

7. Even if Trump were correct

...and he's not...

it would represent an unintended consequence of the federal CARES act. So if legislation has unintended consequences, they are on the legislators and those who approved that legislation.

So two swings and two misses. Care to swing for a third time slugger?

[Hoyt]

8. It's not just the Cares Act. Medicare has been paying based upon diagnosis since the early 1980s.

Private payers a decade or so later.

CV19 costs a hospital more, so they get paid more vs. severe influenza, pneumonia, etc. So, he's right that hospitals get more. Where he's wrong is that hospitals are claiming the patient has CV19, even if they don't. That's not true.

Probably doesn't make much difference as trump need to go in any event.