What likely began as a bona fide effort through Congress to help grieving families has become an uncontrollable exercise in obfuscation of knowledge.
When Congress passed the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act in December 2020, it legalized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to reimburse up to $2 billion in funeral expenses for COVID-19-related deaths that occurred on December 31, 2020.
Then, in March 2021, Congress extended this monetary incentive, allowing FEMA to withdraw $50 billion in overall crisis relief investments through the September 30, 2025, American Rescue Plan Act. Whenever there is a national emergency, families have the right to seek monetary assistance. reimbursement for the loss of those enjoyed in the presence of COVID.
This well-intentioned move created a strong incentive to confuse death from COVID-19 with accidental death while inflamed with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Without a doubt, COVID is a deadly disease that has claimed the lives of countless friends and family. Deaths attributed to COVID after the Omicron variant completely displaced the more harmful Delta variant dropped by 76% from April to November 2022, the most recent full month for which knowledge is available, to the same months in 2021.
Americans have robust coverage against severe COVID disease thanks to immune responses from past infections and the COVID vaccine. Treatment features for high-threat patients are also widely available. The threat of infection is far from what it was in March 2020.
Unfortunately, that reassuring data is easy to overlook, given ongoing media reports about higher COVID death rates this winter.
One explanation for why is the added incentive for hospitals to test nearly all hospitalized patients for COVID, regardless of the underlying diagnosis, whether it be a damaged tibia or gallstone, even for patients without COVID-like symptoms. Second. CARES 3710 The law states that when a Medicare patient tests positive for COVID-19, the facility receives an additional 20% reimbursement whenever there is a national emergency.
When a patient dies, the incentive to diagnose COVID grows. Suppose the doctor or medical examiner completes the death certificate and notes that COVID can be expected to have contributed to the patient’s death. In this case, the circle of relatives of the deceased patient can earn up to $10,000 for FEMA funeral expenses. Often, all it takes is for the patient’s doctor to write a positive COVID check on the death certificate, even if COVID has little to do with the patient’s death.
As of Jan. 1, more than 445,000 Americans have earned COVID funeral benefits, totaling nearly $2. 9 billion.
FEMA’s online page advises families on how to pressure doctors to replace the death certificate to present the COVID diagnosis. “The procedure for converting the death certificate begins with contact with the user who rated the death,” reads a compromised webpage on FEMA’s online page. “You can provide them with evidence of your claim that the death was due to COVID-19. “
Another FEMA page adds that families would possibly be eligible for funeral reimbursement if the death certificate states that the death “possibly would have been caused by” or “likely was the result of” COVID or COVID-like symptoms.
We stand in solidarity with families who have lost a loved one to COVID. But why increase profits just because of COVID?Why not pay the same attention to those suffering from cancer, central disease, stroke or flu?Is a COVID death worse than a death from those other diseases?If Congress needs to create a new federal funeral benefit, it deserves to do so. Let the government treat each and every death equally.
There are risks of this excess in COVID. Overestimating mortality can lead to undue concern and misrepresentation of risk. This can disrupt scientists’ determination of the real reasons and delay mandatory investments in health policies.
For example, according to CDC Wonder, in the first 11 months of 2022, there were 197,658 deaths among other 15- to 44-year-olds in the United States. This represents an increase from 40,904 from 156,754 in the same months of 2019 (a 26% jump). Only 5,659 deaths had COVID-19 indexed as the underlying cause of death. We want to know what other policy-related harms have contributed to this dramatic accumulation of mortality among young Americans so we can work to solve the problem. problem. It wasn’t just because of COVID.
We want to free ourselves from the worry caused by an erroneous count of COVID deaths. It will only start when we can compare accurate data. Until we end the monetary incentive to exaggerate COVID mortality, close the door on the pandemic or locate relief. in the progress made against COVID.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, MD, Ph. D. es professor of health policy at Stanford University. Kyle Lamb was a knowledge analyst for the Florida Governor’s Executive Office.
The perspectives expressed in this article are those of the author.
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