If the patient has other health problems and dies after contracting Covid-19 I believeWhile I agree it appears some numbers have been inflated I also think that if someone had heart or respiratory problems before contracting Covid-19 and died of complications brought about from the virus, say perhaps a heart attack brought on by extra stresses on the body from the virus which normally would not have caused death then it would be appropriate to list COD as the virus. Same as respiratory patients that are normally reasonably healthy but die from virus complications. Simply having a pre-existing condition should not preclude listing Covid-19 from being listed as COD in cases where it is reasonable that the patient would not have died within the same timeline without exposure to the virus.
Covid-19 should be listed as a contributing factor and not necessarily the COD.
Here is what a friend who does medical coding for several large hospitals tells me.
The hospitals and doctors get $13,000 dollars if a patient is suspected of having
Covid-19 the moment they walk in the door, if it is confirmed they get $39,000. It is
up to the physician on how he wants it coded. Of course the hospitals want everything
they can get so there is tremendous pressure on the physicians.
The CDC is not helping by telling the medical community to code all deaths
as caused by Covid-19. Makes you wonder why they are doing this.
"FOLLOW THE MONEY"