Get ready for yet more massive government spending. The Trump administration may have just given hospital executives the green light to jack up bills for treating anyone infected with the coronavirus.
Vice President Mike Pence said at Thursday’s daily White House press briefing that the administration is right now working on a proposal to ensure that anyone in the country who gets treated for the infection won’t have to pay for it.
He said that the coronavirus task force is looking to “compensate the hospitals directly for any coronavirus treatment that they provide to uninsured Americans.”
Obviously, no one wants to see anyone die or go untreated or keep spreading this freak virus that no one saw coming. But for the White House to come out and say upfront that all the bills are guaranteed to be covered could lead to a lot of unnecessary tests, procedures, and instruments used on every patient seen by the hospitals.
That’s how our healthcare system works — everything a doctor uses or does to a patient is marked down and itemized for payment, including the sheets that are used for occupied hospital beds.
It’s largely due to the way hospitals seek reimbursement from insurers, which is through a system called “coding.” The New York Times laid it out in extensive detail in 2017:
Candid healthcare providers will admit that they deliberately conduct as many procedures on patients as possible if it can mean more money. Why do you think doctors almost always ask their patients to come back for a follow-up, regardless of whether the person feels completely fine once they’ve been treated or prescribed the appropriate medicine? Because that’s another visit, another co-payment, and perhaps more billable treatment.
Hospitals all over the country are immediately straining resources, so it’s perhaps not likely that healthcare providers even have the time to nickel and dime, but how long does this free form of healthcare for everyone last? Does it include people who get sick a year from now? Two years? Three years? Forever?
As Pence works through the proposal, he should make sure there are some limits in place to prevent taxpayers and patients from being taken for a ride.
