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- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
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I can attest to this. Not sure if any remember me posting a few weeks ago how we had more to do than we could get done (within the given time frame), that was very true. But there are a LOT of people who have a lot time to twiddle their thumbs right now. I doubt that’s the case in New York, but is definitely true in Georgia.
Stay safe Dawgnation! I do believe there is now a light at the end of the tunnel.
A few general things:
Kasey, we need you as a moderator. Please stay engaged. Unfortunately, it is not easy to discuss things with folks who disagree politically. We should be better at this, but everything from biased news to Facebook algorithms to con artist politicians keep us talking mostly to folks who agree with us. This forum is different. But its not easy even when we are trying and the ground rules are important. Please help us with that.
Bankwalker, actually the post about a hospital billing 70k and getting paid 30k is true. All insurers and Medicare/Medicaid have negotiated discounts with hospitals and private practices. Its hurting our hospitals for sure. And someone uninsured doesnt get this negotiated discount and is charged the full amount.
Denmen, how'd you come up with your 150 out of 1000 number for testing? Just curious about the why behind your benchmark.
We've been dealing with this for months now. Yeah the logistics are tough but who cares? It needs to be figured out if we want to reopen. Experts agree that testing needs to be greatly expanded (1 million a day to start) and shifted away from sick people to healthy people who plan on entering the work force. I expect the USA to rise to the occasion instead of complaining about logistics.
A Sunday reminder this is not the place to politicize your opinions about this virus. It's a place to check in on how you are doing and share any info you may have without slants. I get it that it's frustrating, but bickering back and forth won't help, or be tolerated.
And just to give certain individuals a heads up, name calling others won't get you the attention you crave. You know who you are.
If you feel YOU MUST have the last word, I would invite you to send the offending individual a personal message. If you need a tutorial on how to do so, I can let you know
Until then, rise above hate or hate will rise above you
If somebody asks me to bench 250, and in doing so I can serve my fellow man, it's not a complaint if I say I can't do it.
If somebody asks me to bench 250, and I doing so I can serve my fellow man 4 months from now, it's then a complaint 'cause if I work my tail off I could do that.
So I understand, Yale, there's a conversation to be had there. Fauci has said that NO ONE could have anticipated all the mess that has and will continue to go on.
Our country is complex, moreso than anywhere else on the planet - 100 different cultures, different religions, political beliefs, geographic characteristics, population densities, state infrastructures, etc. It's what makes us beautiful.
I am not making excuses for anyone. There are idiots every where, and wonderful servants everywhere. Can't imagine how hard it would be to lead a county, state or country right now. I just think everyone "complaining" about leadership seem a little ignorant.
I am a coach, and I know real-time leadership (on an orders-of- magnitude smaller level) means you make 10 mistakes for every success. (...before you write me off as a meat-head, understand that I have an undergrad degree in chem, so I am not a complete meat-head).
I am just "sensitive' to complaints from the crowd - who usually see 3% of the entire picture.
But I also recognize that if you can't handle the complaining, you're in the wrong business...
Yale, and several of you posters - I recognize we may not completely agree on all things society/politics/culture, I can tell from many of your posts you are incredibly intelligent and bring SO MUCH to this discussion, and I appreciate you...
The experts say anywhere from 1-3 million a day but the main countries in Europe are targeting 100,000 per day with about 20% of the population on average so US equ would be 500,000 per day. Interestingly a Harvard study also says 500k a day which equates to around 150/100,000 daily. That rate would still take 2 years to test everyone. If and when a vaccine is developed it will be a never ending process to administer the vaccine even at twice that rate. The complicating factor here will also be the fact that reports indicate that the West cases started as "Type A" from Wuhan while the East coast is Type B and C from Europe. The vaccine has to cover all types.
Aside from the virus outbreak, I've had several concerns about the cost of medical care. And I've seen how this works from both sides: insured and not insured.
First of all, why do we have the highest cost of care per capita of any industrialized nation? And as I understand it, we're 25% higher than the next place country?
As a medicare elibible individual, I had concerns over cost. Adding up the regular premium, advantage plan, copays and income-related adjustments, I was looking at five-six thousand a year in medical insurance. So I figured I could do better on my own and opted out of metal care.
Big mistake. Because a few months later I had to visit the emergency room in excruciating pain. A kidney stone. Third time. I should have known better. So two hours in the ER and I was looking at $1800 for the doctor, around $7500 for the hospital, and another $500 for a CT scan. I was able to negotiate a 30% self-pay discount , so that helped. But that was so penny wise and pound foolish.
On the insured side, I had a battery of tests totalling around $500, only to see that after discounts and other reductions, the lab was reimbursed about fifty bucks. Fifty bucks! It's just criminal.
Same for doctors and hospitals. I've read where a doctor only receives around $500 for a knee replacement. That is woefully low. Remember he or she has to pay their nurses, receptionist, billing, equipment, and building rent amongst others.
And the hospitals, it's amazing any of them stay in business. Take Grady for example, low reimbursement rates combined with high rates of care for the indigent. If I had to guess, the number of patients who either don't have insurance or can't afford to pay must number atleast 80% of their patients.
But I'm just hazarding a guess here. If you are a hospital administrator, billing specialist, or have knowledge of the situation, I would be happy to hear your perspective on this. Am I wrong?
@Supra Thank you for clarifying the 1918 reference. I honestly believe the CFR will be well below 1% when this all shakes out. It’s a small study, but the one out of Santa Clara by Stanford would imply there are 10-20 infected people for every person sick enough to get diagnosed. That was on April 1st, and we haven't seen the hospitals overrun by those asymptomatic carriers getting worse. That extrapolates out to about 14,000,000 actual infections, and a 0.2% mortality.
@CaliforniaDawg Yes, I know the hospitals actually bill about twice what they’ve negotiated with the Insurance companies. That doesn’t mean the hospital “lost” that money. That’s the game they play. Been that way since the advent of the HMO, PPO, POS, and whatever else they started calling the new managed care plans since I left the large group insurance field 20 years ago.
Showing a loss on a balance sheet isn’t always what it seems. If it did then you wouldn’t have so many surgeons walking around making mid to high six figures.
Health insurance is one of my favorite soapboxes.
BBA RMI, Terry College of Business.
@MarkBoknecht I have a friend who works in the finance department with Northside Hospital. As tight as their budget is, they somehow continue to figure out a way to grow and grow.
Who should be blamed if those indigent people at Grady don’t have insurance? It’s literally FREE!!!
$1400 for a two hour surgery is pretty good.
My thing about testing is if you leave the site and don't go home into a bubble couldn't you test negative when the results come back but got infected at the store on the way home?
Mark,
Yes, we spend $2K more per person than Switzerland and on average 200% more than the average industrialized nation. Here's a great (non-political) article on it: https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/cost-of-healthcare-countries-ranked-2019-3
And it is criminal that a hospital gets $50 net for a service they charge $500 for, the example you gave.
If I can, our costs are driven by legal malpractice ridiculousness, overcharging pharmaeutical companies, higher levels of obesity compared other industrialized nations and private insurance companies who pay executives millions for screwing everyone else. There - I think I just covered the whole political spectrum, does it count as nonpolitical if I list the points from both sides? :) At the end of the day, we do best (welfare reform under Clinton, the 1990 Clean Air Act under Bush I) when we listen to each other and work together. This schism in our country is as **** as your average Vol fan.
Back to Covid19, I just lost a $300,000 sale because the buyer lost two relatives over the past few weeks to Covid19. Worse, he lost his father and his aunt and his world has turned upside down.
Free roll of TP with every pizza you order....I just ordered 24 pizzas. You can freeze pizza right???
😝
Came across these graphs earlier today from the HHS ppt deck...Not looking to make a case that continued vigilance and reasonable non-therapeutic isolation measures aren't important, but certainly a striking visual/reminder that the United States shouldn't be viewed monolithically when we debate how much longer we should wait before we consider opening things up again in certain parts of the country:
Sorry if not super-clear (I took a screenshot on my phone), but the red line in the 2nd graph is cumulative cases for NYC metro specifically.
Understanding that there's a case to be made for more testing results in higher cases (NYC has completed 2x as many tests as the 2nd place state (Florida), but looking at these stats one can reasonably make a case that continued steps to shelter in place, etc. in NYC/northern NJ is required until cases continue to go down to a reasonable level. Either way - it's certainly reasonable to consider a shift back to normalcy in some parts of the country before lifting restrictions in NYC.
You are correct but with widespread testing and contact tracing the person that infected the store may have been tested and isolated before having given it to you. So you could but the chances should be greatly reduced if done properly.
PS Have you seen Carson play in person?
I have seen Carson in person his Junior year. Good friend of ours son was a kicker at Atlantic Coast High School and they played Mandarin High the first game that season and they invited us to watch their son. The game was on ESPN and all the talk was how Carson was going to Alabama. I just remember him as being a tough kid smart with his throws and new when to tuck it and run.
Thanks and stay safe. I am on day 33 of staying in here in Fernandina.
Just a little perspective on why it takes a long time to get the test kits mass produced. Its not as simple as just ordering a company to start mass producing them. In today's highly specialized and efficient businesses the factories are only set up to produce one part of the whole and do so at a high rate. To suddenly expect them to be able to switch to something completely different and expect immediate results is naive at best. You have to identify a new mold in order to create the product. You then have to test to see if the equipment can crank out the new mold as it may have to change a little in a small way that would require changes in other parts of the line. This may continue for a long time to get it right. The new process would then need to be tested and cleared through the safety regulations to make sure lawsuits and union contracts are being accounted for. Now you have to train the employees on the new process once its finally cleared. This is a huge financial impact on the company as they would have to account for loss of their regular business for a crisis response of unknown duration. Add to this that this is a novel virus that we continue to learn new things about. The directive on day one may have changed 100 times by today as each day brings a new update which would then cause the whole process to restart. Also you have to do this in social distancing environment.
I'm not writing this in support or against the current administration in office. Its just the realities of trying to manage things on a large scale. There's so many little details that a simple sounding solution of just order the companies to start doing this doesn't take into account the realities of actually producing the product. I'm sure most of you have heard the saying its like trying to change to course of an aircraft carrier but the realities of leading the US as a whole is like trying to change continental drift. There's going to be some friction and some quakes and nothing is going to happen fast. There's just too much to do with a billion small parts that all have to be moved in a new direction, often kicking and screaming against their will. It really doesn't matter which admin was in power for this. Every single one of them would be having major problems with this. All we can do is make sure we are doing our small part of what we are asked to do. You may not agree with the decisions that have been made but that doesn't change the fact the decision was made and this is the way we are going to handle this. There is no correct answer to this problem. If we do social distancing and it works it will look like an overreaction. If we end it and it doesn't get worse we will never know if we shouldn't have done social distancing to begin with. If we end it and it gets worse we can say yeah we should have extended it but then we won't know what would have happened if we had extended social distancing rules. It could have led to a very different outcome. Arguing about this is pointless. You've been asked to play a small part in this and its up to you to do your part. That's all you can control in this crisis so control what you can and that's Go Dawgs and save your hate for the gators.
It was inconvenient and probably somewhat difficult to overhaul the American economy during WWII, but by the end of 1943, two-thirds of the economy had been converted to war production. FDR established agencies and programs to direct these efforts. One could make the argument that the incredible collaboration between government and private corporations like Ford and General Electric turned the war.
There was and still is a tremendous amount of civic pride in the war effort, which epitomized the golden ideals of American selflessness, determination, and buy-in to a larger cause. Civilian engagement in the war effort is as big a part of American folklore as George Washington and Betsy Ross. If we are indeed the greatest country in the world, we can rise to this challenge.
Facts are that we goofed around and downplayed the threat for 6 critical weeks, and it will require leadership and federal investment into a common goal to get this done.
Interesting read on what physicians are seeing in severe cases. Highlights how much we don't know about the virus.
It was interesting, thanks for sharing. As you say, we don't know a whole lot yet. Good data is required before good decisions can be made and a clear path can reveal itself. Strange times.