Report: Biden administration wants to change how COVID hospitalizations are counted



The Biden administration is reportedly changing the way COVID-19 hospitalizations are counted in a way that critics have been demanding for months.

According to Politico, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking hospitals to change how they report COVID-19 patients. The federal government now wants hospitals to distinguish between people who go to the hospital because they have COVID-19 from those who are admitted to the hospital for other reasons, like a broken leg, and then test positive for the virus.

Changing the way COVID-19 hospitalizations are reported could have a cascading effect on the federal government's response to the pandemic. Masking requirements, social distancing guidelines, and other coronavirus restrictions are enacted by public health officials who use case counts and hospitalizations as key metrics to gauge the severity of the virus.

Since the surge of cases caused by the Omicron variant, hospitalizations have come to be seen as a more reliable measure of severe disease. Counting coronavirus cases relies upon accurate testing, and people generally only get tested if they experience symptoms or if they've come into contact with someone who had the virus, while deaths are a lagging indicator.

The goal of the Biden administration is to have national data present a more accurate count of Americans who have been hospitalized because of COVID-19.

"While the guidance and intent of the hospital data collection is to capture people who are admitted for Covid (vs with Covid), in practice the data reported varies by entity,” an HHS official told Politico. "Some entities may be able to delineate ... but we do not do this in the national dataset.”

The Biden administration is reportedly conducting a national review of hospitalization data to determine how many people went to the hospital for COVID-19 during the Omicron surge and how many people went for unrelated reasons but tested positive afterward. In one CDC report made public last week, a hospital in California found that 80% of its COVID-19 patients came to the hospital because of the virus while 20% were admitted "primarily for non–COVID-19 conditions."

Lower hospitalization rates would erase the stated reasons for COVID-19 policies that Americans have grown weary of after two years of the pandemic. The initial "two weeks to slow the spread" campaign led by former President Donald Trump and White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci in March 2020 was intended to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. In a world where hospitals are not overburdened and vaccines are readily available, there's little need for pandemic restrictions.

Critics of the Biden administration have argued for months that reported COVID-19 hospitalizations were inflated by the way they were counted. Some people who test positive for the virus in the hospital experienced only mild symptoms and were admitted for reasons unrelated to COVID-19. Many have called for the CDC to change how hospitalizations are counted and revoke the pandemic guidelines.

Several states are already taking action to return to normal as Omicron cases have fallen. Democratic governors in Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey this week announced they will lift statewide mask requirements in schools in March. But the federal government has been slow to update its guidelines on masking and other policies.

On Feb. 2, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters that hospitalization rates and death rates are the metrics the federal government will use to determine when it is time to lift pandemic measures like masking.

"We will continue to reevaluate, and we know people are anxious," Walensky said.

Horowitz: Three ways the COVID hospital data is being inflated



In George Washington's republic, the contours of fundamental rights and the scope of governmental authority were defined by natural law and the Constitution. In Anthony Fauci's new America, those rights and powers are defined by coronavirus case and hospitalization data. As such, if hospitalizations are to be the new Constitution, shouldn't we at least demand answers about misleading data being used to impose an authoritarian and deleterious lifestyle on us?

Putting aside the fact that these lockdown measures don't work to stop the spread of the virus, are we even measuring the spread properly? In addition to governors failing to provide historical context to the current hospital levels compared to flu seasons, there are several other recent factors inflating the numbers.

Counting observation beds

To begin with, as a nation, we have decided to treat this virus in the hospital much more than any other virus. Congress has thrown billions of dollars at the hospitals, and they receive higher reimbursement rates for treating COVID-19 patients. However, many of the cases are not necessarily clinical level. Undoubtedly, in the worst cases, patients are critically ill, but the panic surrounding this virus creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of more people coming to the ER and being admitted. The financial incentives for hospitals certainly exacerbate this trend.

One particular change in policy that might be responsible for some of the inflation since October is the fact that they are now including those admitted to "observation" beds in the COVID hospitalization count. On Oct. 6, HHS updated its guidance for hospital data reporting. When reporting "total hospitalized adult suspected or confirmed positive COVID patients," they added a clause, not included in previous guidance, urging hospitals to "include those in observation beds."

Here's another contributing factor as to why reported hospitalizations have increased:Per updated (10/6) HHS guid… https://t.co/MLddQLY1Dd
— AJ Kay (@AJ Kay)1605646270.0

In case you thought this was just technical advice to hospitals, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a letter to hospitals in October threatening harsh penalties for those who don't report this data. "Failure to report the specified data needed to support broader surveillance of COVID-19 may lead to the imposition of the remedy to terminate a provider's participation from the Medicare and Medicaid programs," warned CMS in a memo to all hospitals that serve Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Thus, if you combine the carrot and the stick — both the financial incentive to pad the COVID numbers and the threat of loss of funds for not reporting them — why would a hospital ever err on the side of underreporting and not overreporting? Remember, these incentives are driving the data reporting, which in turn is controlling the destiny of our lives.

Hospitalization is needed to obtain remdesivir

Another reason why a lot of COVID patients who are largely sub-clinical are being admitted to the hospital is because of the use of remdesivir. I've previously written on how this drug was proven to be completely ineffective by a massive study conducted by the World Health Organization. Nonetheless, it is the only FDA-approved drug for COVID-19 treatment, and in order to obtain it, one needs to be hospitalized for at least three days. As A.J. Kay, writer at RationalGround.com observes, because CMS waived the requirement for hospitals to produce a utilization review plan for this drug (because remdesivir is king), it necessitated hospital admission.

The approval of this drug took place on Oct. 22, which would also explain the recent surge in hospital numbers. It would also explain why ICU admissions don't seem to be rising commensurate to the hospital admissions.

The ratio of rate of increase between hospitalization and ICU was about the same until 4 days ago - where hospital… https://t.co/wn64AcRi8u
— Ethical Skeptic ☀ (@Ethical Skeptic ☀)1605249480.0

Clearly, there are many people being admitted who don't necessarily need to be there.

Car accidents and heart attacks magically become COVID

North Dakota and Iowa are the only states that distinguish those who are hospitalized because of COVID-19 from those hospitalized because of other ailments or injuries and just happen to test positive. Based on those numbers, I estimated that between 25% and 30% of the hospitalizations are really counting those admitted for other conditions who happen to have asymptomatic or mild cases of the virus, which are detected by universal testing in hospitals. But a new report from the Miami Herald suggest that in some states that number might be much higher.

On Wednesday, the Herald reported that out of 898 patients who tested positive in Miami's public hospitals last week, 52% of them "were admitted for other reasons, largely to emergency rooms, without typical COVID-19 signs." In other words, more than half of those who are now recorded as COVID hospitalizations are really admitted for anything from car accidents and broken bones to heart attacks, kidney stones, and abdominal pain. That is simply astounding.

The Herald uses this fact to sow more panic by suggesting that it is a sign of growing spread. Well, no kidding. This virus is everywhere and is as prolific as the flu is during flu season. But that's the point. Everyone is going to be exposed to this virus, and only a tiny percentage become sick enough to legitimately be hospitalized from it. However, during a period of ubiquitous spread, a large percentage of those in the hospital will test positive or even contract it after entering the hospital. Imagine if we counted everyone in the hospital during flu season as a flu case, even if they were asymptomatic and admitted for other reasons.

The irony is lost on the media and politicians that the overwhelming majority of cases are very mild or asymptomatic, but by panicking over the virus and treating every case like Stage 4 cancer, we are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of straining hospitals with both illusory numbers and logistical problems with overaggressive quarantining of patients and staff.

Just remember these are the numbers that are being used to determine our ability to school our children, open our businesses, enjoy fresh air or entertainment, or even get together on Thanksgiving.