No, hospitals are not falsely listing covid as the reason for treatment of patients and the cause of death so they can get higher financial reimbursements.
I heard this from a family member yesterday and the implication was that the covid deaths and diagnoses are very inflated due to higher reimbursements and payments hospitals will receive if they literally falsify the treatment records.
By the way, apparently this is a story that was running on Fox News, not really a news program in my opinion, but more of a political entertainment show – Fox even admits this is the case for much of their programming.
This gets back to a bigger peeve I have. We have a responsibility to be better consumers of information, especially with the flood of disinformation out there. We need to be suspicious of stories in the media that especially are tailored to our political perspectives. I recently wrote a post on my blog about the danger of misinformation and our need to be strong critical thinkers when we look at information in the media. https://westtopshamviews.com/…/a-clear-and-present-danger/
I think many do not use the skills of critical thinking and are more delighted to find a story that reinforces their opinions or perspective. I would first ask, who does this story benefit? Who wrote this or said this? What is their agenda? Is this showing up in other locations in the media?
Here is a link to a critical thinking cheat sheet that I used with my students as a tool for analyzing information and media stories. My students were always surprised at many of their own answers to the questions for analyzing media stories. http://climateknowledge.org/…/Wabisabi_Learning…
Lastly, here is a response from Fact Check. org responding to the media story (note, I am referring to a “media story” and not a “news story.” Some have used the term “fake news” to any story that is not complimentary to them. Well, here is a fair time to use the term “fake news.”
https://www.factcheck.org/…/hospital-payments-and-the…/
FACTCHECK.ORG
Hospital Payments and the COVID-19 Death Count – FactCheck.org
A Vermonter Writes - A Pathfinder 