Covid is right here, and it's getting bad fast.

Far West said:

I think that was illegal.​

​

Medicare Billing for COVID-19 Vaccine Shot Administration​

There’s No Out-of-Pocket Cost for Your Patients​

Patients can get the COVID-19 vaccine, including additional doses and booster doses, without a physician’s order or supervision, and they pay nothing for the vaccine and its administration. If you participate in the CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Program, you must:
  • Administer the vaccine with no out-of-pocket cost to your patients for the vaccine or administration of the vaccine
  • Vaccinate everyone, including the uninsured, regardless of coverage or network status
You also can’t:
  • Balance bill for COVID-19 vaccinations
  • Charge your patients for an office visit or other fee if COVID-19 vaccination is the only medical service given
  • Require additional medical or other services during the visit as a condition for getting a COVID-19 vaccination
Report any potential violations of these requirements to the HHS Office of the Inspector General:

Medicare Billing for COVID-19 Vaccine Shot Administration | CMS

The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ended at the end of the day on May 11, 2023. View Infectious diseases for a list of waivers and flexibilities that were in place during the PHE.
www.cms.gov www.cms.gov
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Far West said:
And here from the CDC:

COVID-19 Vaccines Are Free to the Public​

Updated May 24, 2021
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What You Need to Know​

  • COVID-19 vaccines are available for everyone at no cost.
  • Vaccines were paid for with taxpayer dollars and will be given to all people living in the United States, regardless of insurance or immigration status.
  • COVID-19 vaccination is an important tool to help stop the pandemic.
  • CDC recommends you get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as you can.

Be Aware of Scams​

If anyone asks you to pay for access to a COVID-19 vaccine, you can bet it’s a scam. Don’t share your personal or financial information if someone calls, texts, or emails you promising access to a vaccine for an extra fee.
COVID-19 vaccination providers cannot:
  • Charge you for a vaccine
  • Charge you directly for any administration fees, copays, or coinsurance
  • Deny vaccination to anyone who does not have health insurance coverage, is underinsured, or is out of network
  • Charge an office visit or other fee to the recipient if the only service provided is a COVID-19 vaccination
  • Require additional services in order for a person to receive a COVID-19 vaccine; however, additional healthcare services can be provided at the same time and billed as appropriate
COVID-19 vaccination providers can:

Anyone in the United States Can Get Vaccinated​

The federal government is providing vaccines free of charge to all people living in the United States, regardless of their immigration or health insurance status.
Ensuring that everyone in the United States can receive a COVID-19 vaccine helps us get closer to the goal of achieving population immunity. Population immunity makes it harder for COVID-19 to spread from person to person, and it even helps protect people who cannot receive a vaccine, like newborns.
CDC does not require U.S. citizenship for individuals to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Jurisdictions (state, tribal, local, and territorial) cannot add U.S. citizenship requirements or require U.S. citizenship verification as a requirement for vaccination.

www.cdc.gov

COVID-19 Vaccination

COVID-19 vaccines protect against COVID-19. Get safety info and more.
www.cdc.gov www.cdc.gov

abc7chicago.com

Charged for your free COVID vaccine? Federal gov't wants you to report it

The federal government has made it clear that these shots are 100% free to consumers. So why are people still being billed?
abc7chicago.com abc7chicago.com

What if I receive a bill for my COVID-19 vaccine?​

If you receive a bill for your COVID-19 vaccine, you may need to file a claim with your insurance company since they're required to cover approved preventive care under the Affordable Care Act.

If you don't have insurance and receive a bill, regulations state that the doctors will be able to get paid through the Health Resources and Services Administration's Provider Relief Fund, according to the CDC, so you'll need to contact the clinic or hospital where you received the immunization.

If you receive a bill for administration fees, follow the same protocols as above since providers can't charge you this fee.
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We did not pay out of pocket but Medicare was billed and they paid the charge.
 
ABTHREE said:
We did not pay out of pocket but Medicare was billed and they paid the charge.
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So you were letting us know that not only do they pay for the vaccine, but they also get more government funds to administer giving the shots?

Your point was total cost of each shot...I missed that... I thought you were gouged an extra fee, and I thought you got took. :(;):)
 
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Guard Dad said:
www.oann.com

Biden gets 3rd dose of Pfizer, attacks unvaccinated Americans

Joe Biden received a third dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on live television in an attempt to encourage vaccinations among Americans. Biden got the shot at the White House on Monday while touting the supposed importance of getting the vaccine as well as claiming this was a pandemic of the...
www.oann.com www.oann.com
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Biden's rant: The protected need to be protected from the unprotected by forcing the unprotected to use the protection that didn’t protect the protected.
 
Guard Dad said:
I'm sure this is not the norm, but still scary. The video is also interesting. The doctor seems to think we're on the back side of this.

www.foxnews.com

Fully vaccinated Michigan couple dies from COVID-19 a minute apart while holding hands: report

A fully vaccinated Michigan couple died one minute apart from COVID-19 on Sunday after coming down with the virus earlier this month, a report said.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
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The more I have read, being on a ventilator is not usually going to have a good outcome.

Until they start using some treatment drugs as people are diagnosed with Covid... we will continue to lose people. Especially for people who, like these two, had preexisting condition. The article said they were careful and vaxed.... Did the hospital try any of the drugs that we hear work, but the CDC has not approved?

The CDC will not approve them even though they have been used for decades for other things like Lupis and Aids. One article I read said that Covid actually does to your body similar to Lupis and Aids... I would think once the virus takes over you throw the kitchen sink at it. Not use the ventilator.
 
Far West said:
The more I have read, being on a ventilator is not usually going to have a good outcome.

Until they start using some treatment drugs as people are diagnosed with Covid... we will continue to lose people. Especially for people who, like these two, had preexisting condition. The article said they were careful and vaxed.... Did the hospital try any of the drugs that we hear work, but the CDC has not approved?

The CDC will not approve them even though they have been used for decades for other things like Lupis and Aids. One article I read said that Covid actually does to your body similar to Lupis and Aids... I would think once the virus takes over you throw the kitchen sink at it. Not use the ventilator.
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The pulmonologist I followed up with told me he was surprised they didn't put me on a ventilator, and I responded that they talked about it but I refused. He then said they have learned a lot since all this started, and had they put me on one I probably would not have come home.
 
Guard Dad said:
covidestim.org

covidestim: COVID-19 nowcasting

Up-to-date estimates of key covid-19 metrics for your county or state
covidestim.org
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Thanks. Nice Site. They make it very clear:

The effective reproductive number (R_tRt) is one of the major outcomes we report on covidestim.org. R_tRt represents the average number of new infections produced by a single infectious individual at time tt, taking account of current mitigation measures and transmission patterns, as well as features of the virus that make it more or less likely to be transmitted. If R_t > 1.0Rt>1.0, each infection produces more than one future infection and the epidemic will grow. If R_t<1.0Rt<1.0, each infection produces less than one future infection and the epidemic will decline. For this reason, R_tRt is a key measure for understanding SARS-CoV-2 transmission patterns

<snip>

Secondly, the implications of R_tRt should be understood in light of current levels of transmission. Even if R_tRt has a value of 0.91, consistent with a declining epidemic, this could imply a long period of elevated transmission – and associated illness, hospitalization and mortality – if starting from a point of high transmission. For example, with an R_tRt of 0.91 it would take more than 6 weeks to see a 50% drop in transmission. In these situations, it is important to achieve more rapid reduction in transmission, both to minimize health losses and to reduce the risk of further resurgence in infections. So, while lower values of R_tRt imply less transmission than higher values (all else being equal), and R_t<1Rt<1 implies that the number of new infections has started to decrease, it is important to interpret these estimates in light of their uncertainty and the limits on what they tell us about both the short-term and longer-term trajectory of the epidemic.\\
 
Guard Dad said:
I feel like it's a good snapshot of how we're doing against the WuFlu.
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I just wonder how it will do as the case numbers drop and the influx of new cases into the state become a larger and larger percentage of the total number of cases.

Since it doesn't look like it is designed to handle "Case Zeros" differently, we may see it it climb back to 1.00 as the WuFlu burns out, but with that meaning that there is x new cases moving in and caught after x cases last week, rather than an actual infection from person to person.

What seemed to be a better indicated for me was the percent infected, or those who have had wuflu at least once, and their estimate is 62%, with uncertainty taking that has high as the 80% goal. Since there are those who are vaxed that haven't had it, I think we may be even higher than that for those with Antibodies, which should get us closer to the herd immunity as long as a version doesn't release that can bypass currently active antibodies.

County numbers are interesting.
Paulding is .49,
Cobb is .75
Polk is .36.
Fulton is .58
Bartow is .38 (Est 71% have had the WuFlu)
 
cptlo said:
www.yahoo.com

Former FDA chief predicts the Delta variant could be the last major COVID-19 surge in the US and be over by Thanksgiving

Dr. Scott Gottlieb also pointed to the importance of COVID-19 testing to differentiate between other illnesses in the winter months.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

Hopefully he is right.
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I've heard 2 or 3 prominent docs say we might be on the back side of this thing. If Delta is the last variant, I think COVID will be minimized by next spring. Not gone, but the spread rate down very low.
 
Here's how my wife explained virus mutations work. I person gets the virus and the body acts as a copy machine, making more and more of the virus. Sometimes a bad copy comes out and that's a mutation. Then the mutated virus enters people's bodies and copies are made, etc.
 
Boss 302 said:
Here's how my wife explained virus mutations work. I person gets the virus and the body acts as a copy machine, making more and more of the virus. Sometimes a bad copy comes out and that's a mutation. Then the mutated virus enters people's bodies and copies are made, etc.
Click to expand...
It all depends on how the bad copy comes out and what changed. Sometimes it makes it easier to catch, sometimes the change makes it harder. Sometimes it makes it attack more, sometimes less. Delta was much easier to catch than Alpha, Beta and Gamma, so it became the one we saw the most and Alpha is pretty much gone.

Biggest issue will be if there is a mutation that changes the proteins that the existing antibodies use to ID the virus. If that happens, then it becomes a new virus as far as the body is concerned, the existing vax will be useless against it and we get to do this all over again.

Hopefully that won't happen before herd immunity kicks in.

But in this world of travel, we really do need to help other countries to stop this, so that those immigrants coming in don't bring in a new version created in some foreign land and passed around there.
 
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