COVID-19 2nd wave - Texas only - Stats and such

[Anastasis 23485]

37 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Even if it’s 80/20, that’s still a lot of out of pocket. Imagine if you have no insurance or you get it but recently lost your job, declined Cobra, or just straight up lost your coverage. 

Most of the big insurance companies have dropped member cost share for COVID testing and treatment in their fully insured groups.  In employer directed groups, whether COVID-related treatment is cost-shared is up to your employer. 

[XYZ 2154]

12 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Serious question. In one of the early relief packages, wasn't there some legislation in there about paying for treatment expenses for Covid? I know there was some discussion, but I can't remember what was actually passed.

Why do you hate America?

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

I’d love for you to leave the state and in doing so just stop posting here. 

that's not very nice, Rex.

[Js1 85575]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Beeper said:

I’d love for you to leave the state and in doing so just stop posting here. 

Wait you have to be a Texas resident to post here?  Weird rule you just made up, Rex 

[Guest Lobo]

Alright, so CNBC says average hospital stay (which, on average, does not include ICU) runs ~$75,000/$15k O-O-P.  

 can we not even post poll results on here without  you getting all jammed up?  

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by Lobo

[ZB'Tejas 593]

8 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Wait you have to be a Texas resident to post here?  Weird rule you just made up, Rex 

No but there is a secret forum for Texas residents

[bolverk 29718]

I was wrong about the legislation -- it only covers costs for testing. The Kaiser Family Foundation has a good page explaining a lot of details related to costs of treatments.

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/five-things-to-know-about-the-cost-of-covid-19-testing-and-treatment/

Quote

 

In an analysis on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, we find that for people with large employer-sponsored insurance who require hospitalization for pneumonia (a common complication of COVID-19), out-of-pocket costs could top $1,300. People with private coverage through small businesses and the individual market will likely face even higher levels of cost-sharing, since they generally have larger deductibles. Some states have required all state-regulated insurers to waive cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment, though self-funded plans (representing 61% of people with employer coverage) are not required to follow these regulations as these plans are regulated at the federal level. Additionally, many out-of-network physicians may balance bill patients for any costs beyond what the insurer is willing to pay, though providers who receive grants through the CARES Act are prohibited from balance billing for all care provided to patients with presumptive or confirmed cases of COVID-19. Our Health System Tracker analysis found that, on average, 1 in 5 in-network hospitalizations for pneumonia (one common complication of COVID-19) could result in at least one surprise bill from an out-of-network physician or other provider.

Some insurers have voluntarily waived some or all treatment costs. A detailed list from AHIP can be found here. For self-funded plans, employers ultimately decide whether treatment costs will be covered in full or not.

 

Do check the bolded link on the policy of your own insurance company.

[Druggist 303]

It will be interesting to see how the nursing homes fare.  I have mentioned previously I work in a pharmacy that provides meds and other services to homes. 

The census counts at the homes are way down because lots of residents stay short term after surgeries and that is not happening at any real volume.  Also, folks seem more willing to take care of difficult to care for relatives these days so they aren’t getting dumped into homes at the same rate. As a result, they are way less crowded than normal and hopefully that will help limit spread.

Part of the uptick is an effort that started last week by CVS and the state to test every resident and staff member in the state.  A person I talk to every day is involved in this (like sits in the home with the testers, watching results).  He says the nurses are continually surprised by how many positives are asymptomatic (unscientific, but he guesses at least 20- 25%), even in this vulnerable population.  This virus is weird and keeps surprising.  
 

[XYZ 2154]

15 minutes ago, bolverk said:

I was wrong about the legislation -- it only covers costs for testing.

Well, duh! Do you think the medical industry would leave billions of dollars on the table because of some legislation? Who do you think owns this country: the people, or tobacco/oil/banks/pharma/medical/whatever? I am literally laughing my ass off at the though of somebody even attempting to pass a bill that says “your covid hospitalization will be free”.

[bolverk 29718]

6 minutes ago, XYZ said:

Well, duh! Do you think the medical industry would leave billions of dollars on the table because of some legislation? Who do you think owns this country: the people, or tobacco/oil/banks/pharma/medical/whatever? I am literally laughing my ass off at the though of somebody even attempting to pass a bill that says “your covid hospitalization will be free”.

Give it a rest, man. Yes, there was indeed discussion about the federal government covering at least some of the costs of treatment, especially for the uninsured.

 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/09/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-coronavirus-treatment-costs.html

Quote

 

The average cost to treat a hospitalized patient with the virus is $30,000, according to a study released Wednesday by America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group for insurers. (Other estimates have come in both lower and higher.)

Regardless of the amount, though, the tab generally wouldn’t be the responsibility of patients with insurance. And even for those with no coverage, there’s a good chance — as of now — that you won’t get billed for at least som eparts of your treatment.

Here’s what you should know.

The uninsured
Although details are still being worked out, the Trump administration said last week that it will use funding under recently passed legislation to help cover the cost of treating uninsured coronavirus patients — as long as the hospital accepting the government’s reimbursement rate does not bill the uninsured patient for any remaining balance (i.e., “balance billing”).

“The uninsured would be able to go into the hospital without being worried about facing thousands of dollars in hospital bills,” said Karyn Schwartz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

However, it’s unclear whether the government’s offer of reimbursement extends only to hospitals or to other providers as well, Schwartz said. That includes physicians who treat a coronavirus patient in the hospital and may not be directly employed by the facility.

 

 

[Armybrat 40911]

11 hours ago, XYZ said:

There will be so many people getting million dollar hospital bills. If you end up in the ICU, they might as well have bankruptcy lawyers by the front door waiting for you to get the whole things started right away.

Ten years ago my uninsured son got a $70,000 hospital bill for an icu visit with a 3 night stay after he sawed through his femoral artery. Very lucky to have survived. Anyway he came to a monthly payment agreement with their business office and paid $100/month for several years until they just quit sending him the monthly bill.

In the Covid cases today, probably the same will happen for the uninsured.

[Armybrat 40911]

1 hour ago, SubliminalHorn said:

That’s like per day

First time I was in the ICU in 2000, it ran about $1,000/hour.

In January 2019, my heart attack/stent implant getaway weekend at St.David’s in Round Rock was $140,000. I paid about $3,000 outta pocket altogether.

 

[Js1 85575]

Hey @stone oak, why don’t you go Ask your husband to scrub the sand from your pussy and stop negging everyone like the sad little CR wannabe bitch boy you are. 

[BrazilHorn 6633]

Here is daily case change by age bucket. Concerned that for 2nd straight day the daily change for 60+ is higher than what the total case average has been for those three age buckets (60-69, 70-79, 80+). These three groupings comprise 85% of total deaths so as these folks get infected at a higher clip, the odds of them deaths moving up stand to follow.

Age Bracket	1 to 9	10 to 19	20 to 29	30 to 39	40 to 49	50 to 59	60 to 69	70 to 79	>80	Total
New Cases 7/16 vs 7/15	8	49	68	97	82	51	30	16	13	414
% of Daily Change	1.93%	11.84%	16.43%	23.43%	19.81%	12.32%	7.25%	3.86%	3.14%
% of Total Cases	2.65%	7.69%	27.52%	21.83%	16.49%	11.65%	6.27%	3.35%	2.56%	16,486

[clapclapclap 9000]

22 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Ten years ago my uninsured son got a $70,000 hospital bill for an icu visit with a 3 night stay after he sawed through his femoral artery.

Karma for his misogyny.

[South Austin 52604]

18 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Hey @stone oak, why don’t you go Ask your husband to scrub the sand from your pussy and stop negging everyone like the sad little CR wannabe bitch boy you are. 

[Armybrat 40911]

14 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

Karma for his misogyny.

Excuse me?

[Mitch Cumsteen 18575]

17 hours ago, South Austin said:

So flame away, but right now I'm still set on sending my daughter to Camp Champions a week from this Sunday for a two-week session.  I'm not hearing any horror stories from this or other camps.  We're in self-quarantine right now and will be in super lock-down for two weeks when she returns.  She really needs it, and for the first time in a long time she is really has something to look forward to. 

It was a really difficult decision, but we sent my son to Camp Longhorn for two weeks. But that was late June before all hell really broke loose. He will have been back two weeks tomorrow. There's no way I would be sending him today with as bad as things have gotten around the state. Camp Longhorn has three separate camps/locations and two of them had zero incidents including the one he was at -- one of them had a few positive kids that I guess they contained relatively well. I don't have many details about it.

You really need to have a lot of faith in other people to be sending them off. It just takes one no-mask wearing idiot to screw it up for everybody. Even with as many safeguards that they have, there is virtually no way to effectively social distance in an overnight camp setting. I feel lucky as hell that it turned out okay. It was so damn good for him and he had the time of his life. But if it were today? I don't see any way I would be sending him. 

[BrickTop 477]

I work at a fire department NW of Houston, small town and all I can speak of is what we are seeing, I’d say at the beginning of all this ems calls were maybe 10 percent covid related and now probably 90 percent of them are with the bulk of them being positive. Throughout this whole deal we were able to escape relatively unscathed even with exposures. Last week we lost an entire engine company go on quarantine with all testing positive, I just found out one of the guys who relieved me tested positive. It’s pretty easy to downplay it all or even ignore it, right up until the point it directly affects you. A few weeks ago the ER was holding seven covid positive patients because of lack of beds, this is in probably a 13-14 bed ER

[babysdaddy 2728]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/missing-context-covid-story-matt-mcpheely/?trackingId=JPI%2FuuNaQQSU9dJqqzvu2g%3D%3D

I found this informative

[smoky 840]

We've got two boys that are halfway through their two week camp session.

The camp sent tests to everyone who wanted one ahead of time. Positives weren't allowed to come, obviously. nor were their siblings.

We'll self quarantine them for two weeks afterwards.

We decided to send them because this is one bright spot/ chance for normalcy for them in 2020. Plus there's no AC, so we felt the risk of transmission was lessened even more.

Camp was great about refunds/ deposits for those that weren't comfortable going.

Everyone has to do their own risk / benefit analysis, but maybe this helps you make yours.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11821]

2 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Excuse me?

I assumed he was making a bad play on the word “femoral “ but could be wrong. Also probably doesn’t know about your late daughter in law. 

[Borachio 417]

On 7/16/2020 at 9:56 AM, NeverMarryAStripper said:

I signed up too.  I got a text to expect a call that should last 15 - 20 minutes to confirm eligibility.  I don't know if that means anything or not.

I filled out the online form last night for Tekton Research, one of the 3 research facilities here in Austin that are doing the phrase 3 testing of the Moderna vaccine.   I got a call this morning from them for a 10 minute phone interview.  Said I should know something next week if I make it to the next round.

[South Austin 52604]

1 hour ago, smoky said:

Camp was great about refunds/ deposits for those that weren't comfortable going.

That's a huge issue for us.  Camp Champions generously modified its cancellation policy and this summer let parents get all of their money back if they cancel at least 48 hours before the start of the session.  That's over $3,500, so had we been under the normal policy we likely would've pulled our daughter out.

[Hawndoh 2388]

My daughter's camp session was canceled after counselors tested positive during the session before hers. That session was cut short and everyone sent home. I know of at least 2 campers who have since tested positive.

I teach for PISD, and we were told today ALL students will start the year virtually until at least labor day. Expect the same to occur with all the other big Dallas suburban districts as they've all been collaborating to create similar policies between them all.

[Hate 20145]

The latest from Conroe ISD is that you can choose to start remotely or send your kid in person. Which ever you choose, you are stuck with that choice for that 9 week grading period. I still expect that to change as I’m not sure how many of the staff feel safe starting the year in person right now.

[Hawndoh 2388]

Plano is doing the same kind of thing, as are most districts.

Roughly 30% of students in Plano had already selected the remote option before they said everyone is going remote until Labor Day.

[Captainant 27772]

37 minutes ago, Hate said:

The latest from Conroe ISD is that you can choose to start remotely or send your kid in person. Which ever you choose, you are stuck with that choice for that 9 week grading period. I still expect that to change as I’m not sure how many of the staff feel safe starting the year in person right now.

I can't imagine that any school could go nine weeks without a student, teacher, or staff member getting sick with COVID. They can set as many unrealistic metrics as they want, but reality is a real motherfucker

[Guest Lobo]

Our ISD originally was planning on deploying a 50% in-person and 50% remote learning, and each family had to commit to at least 9-weeks under the one platform they selected with no "take-backs"  It was going to be a logistical nightmare, but the reason they approved and were set to deploy that optionality, was because parents with the illusion of choice would more easily digest the upcoming chaos when the school inevitably closed down briefly.  

[atomheartbevo 89799]

8 hours ago, utee94 said:

I think after all of this, a lot of people are going to seriously reconsider a lot of their activities, and at least wash their hands a hell of a lot more than they used to, while also not touching their faces.  Perhaps the "vampire cough" will even catch on with the over-10-year-old set...

If people/kids would wash their hands a lot more often and observe a few other practices (wear a fucking mask if you're sick and have to be out like they do in Asia), we could cut down on a helluva lot of things - we could lower percentages on the flu, cold, etc. and save lives.

[bolverk 29718]

22 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

If people/kids would wash their hands a lot more often and observe a few other practices (wear a fucking mask if you're sick and have to be out like they do in Asia), we could cut down on a helluva lot of things - we could lower percentages on the flu, cold, etc. and save lives.

The comparison between westernized East Asian democracies and the US/TX is absolutely staggering in contrast. These are yesterday's numbers as posted by Worldometers.

South Korea
Population: 51,271,209
Cases: 13,612 (265 per million)
Deaths: 291 (6 per million)

Japan
Population: 126,457,976
Cases: 22,890 (181 per million)
Deaths: 985 (8 per million)

Taiwan
Population: 23,818,733
Cases: 452 (19 per million)
Deaths: 7 (0.3 per million)

US
Population: 331,086,970
Cases: 3,695,025 (11,160 per million)
Deaths: 141,118 (426 per million)

Texas
Population: 28,995,881
Cases: 315,924 (10,895 per million)
Deaths: 2,864 (132 per million)
 

[Guest Lobo]

Yeah, but you compare per capita, gross, net-net at the end of the day...Texas is way better than Japan.  Net-net.

Our fuck-up of this will be echoed not in years, but in centuries.  But yes, we've lost 140x the number of people Japan has because of our perfect testing system.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Lobo

[C-Man 27262]

2 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

My daughter's camp session was canceled after counselors tested positive during the session before hers. That session was cut short and everyone sent home. I know of at least 2 campers who have since tested positive.

I teach for PISD, and we were told today ALL students will start the year virtually until at least labor day. Expect the same to occur with all the other big Dallas suburban districts as they've all been collaborating to create similar policies between them all.

Which camp? My kids had Session 3 of Camp Ozark end three days early after a small outbreak.

HPISD up here is doing remote learning starting 8/20 for at least a few weeks.

[Hawndoh 2388]

Camp Deer Run. East Texas

[justhookit 4191]

Camp Beer Run?

[Anastasis 23485]

2 hours ago, Hawndoh said:

I teach for PISD, and we were told today ALL students will start the year virtually until at least labor day.

If they go back right after Labor Day holiday, that seems like a not good recipe.

I am starting to think that most places don't see F2F at all this coming semester. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19224]

2 hours ago, Hate said:

The latest from Conroe ISD is that you can choose to start remotely or send your kid in person. Which ever you choose, you are stuck with that choice for that 9 week grading period. I still expect that to change as I’m not sure how many of the staff feel safe starting the year in person right now.

I went straight to the online option for my kids.  They’re both going pro so ain’t worried about playing school no way. 

[C-Man 27262]

8 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

If they go back right after Labor Day holiday, that seems like a not good recipe.

I am starting to think that most places don't see F2F at all this coming semester. 

Especially If assholes decide to continue to travel like there's nothing out of the ordinary. I'm seeing this news of pushing in-person school back a few weeks giving parents an excuse to squeeze in one last trip to 30A and shit. It's disgusting. (I'm not totally without fault as my kids went to camp and my dipshit ex seems intent on traveling a bit herself with the kids. They're not allowed back over to my house until they've been quarantined for 14 days after leaving town.)

[Captain Ron 12921]

Ok, so what's the deal with today's Texas numbers?

They claim 10,256 cases for the day. But the jump went from 292,656 to 307,572 - that's 14,916 new cases.

So what gives?

 

Awful fatality numbers too. 174.

[ABSR 5324]

42 minutes ago, bolverk said:

The comparison between westernized East Asian democracies and the US/TX is absolutely staggering in contrast. These are yesterday's numbers as posted by Worldometers.

South Korea
Population: 51,271,209
Cases: 13,612 (265 per million)
Deaths: 291 (6 per million)

Japan
Population: 126,457,976
Cases: 22,890 (181 per million)
Deaths: 985 (8 per million)

Taiwan
Population: 23,818,733
Cases: 452 (19 per million)
Deaths: 7 (0.3 per million)

US
Population: 331,086,970
Cases: 3,695,025 (11,160 per million)
Deaths: 141,118 (426 per million)

Texas
Population: 28,995,881
Cases: 315,924 (10,895 per million)
Deaths: 2,864 (132 per million)
 

I wanted to see what this mean on  a death per case and population standpoint and then also using the 10x asymptomatic/unreported cases per reported cases number (which may be wrong) that the CDC put out a few weeks ago, what that meant on death per "assumed" infected.

Added a few countries in Europe thinking that they are a better compare and likely have somewhat reasonable numbers (compared to China, Russia, Iran, etc).

[Huckleberry 33096]

On 7/16/2020 at 3:24 PM, atomheartbevo said:

Furk.

52 test positive at one nursing home in Austin

https://www.kxan.com/investigations/52-test-positive-for-covid-19-at-austin-nursing-home/

And this was released last night

https://www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/nursing-home-investigations/nursing-home-defenses-have-been-penetrated-austin-area-health-officials-warn-after-covid-19-cases-spike/

 

“Our nursing home defenses have been penetrated, and we are seeing numbers like we were seeing early on in this outbreak.” he said. “This provides us evidence that we have to do better at reducing the community transmission, and two — we have to have additional resources to do more aggressive testing and containment.”

This is exactly why most of us called out the stupid calls for "Open the economy!!! If you're high risk then stay home and you'll be fine!!11!!" from people who have no idea how infectious disease works.

[BrazilHorn 6633]

3 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

 

 

This is exactly why most of us called out the stupid calls for "Open the economy!!! If you're high risk then stay home and you'll be fine!!11!!" from people who have no idea how infectious disease works.

Well the nursing home piece explains the jump in 60+ cases the past couple of days. 
If past performance is any predictor, we’ll see spike in deaths from this cohort again. 
 

[Captain Ron 12921]

1 hour ago, Captain Ron said:

Ok, so what's the deal with today's Texas numbers?

They claim 10,256 cases for the day. But the jump went from 292,656 to 307,572 - that's 14,916 new cases.

So what gives?

 

Awful fatality numbers too. 174.

More San Antonio data reshuffling:

Note the overall statewide total has been updated to include approximately 5,000 cases reported by the San Antonio Metro Health District stemming from a laboratory reporting backlog. More information may be found on the San Antonio website.

[bolverk 29718]

1 hour ago, ABSR said:

I wanted to see what this mean on  a death per case and population standpoint and then also using the 10x asymptomatic/unreported cases per reported cases number (which may be wrong) that the CDC put out a few weeks ago, what that meant on death per "assumed" infected.

Added a few countries in Europe thinking that they are a better compare and likely have somewhat reasonable numbers (compared to China, Russia, Iran, etc).

What jumps out me from this table is looking at the deaths per cases or population and seeing how extraordinarily low that rate is in Texas compared to everyone else. What's going on there?

1. Is it that Texans are that more hardy?
2. Is the quality of our healthcare that much better?
3. Has the virus become less lethal?
4. Is it because it didn't really become widespread in the early months like most of those comparisons (East Asians were never swamped) and therefore doctors have learned to treat it better?
5. Is it because the segments of our population that have been most infected (i.e. younger) are less at risk?

I'm guessing that 4 & 5 are the most likely answers but am certainly willing to entertain the notion that 3 is also a possibility. I guess we'll begin to get some more indication as it starts to spread into more at-risk groups like our nursing homes.

 

[bolverk 29718]

4 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

More San Antonio data reshuffling:

Note the overall statewide total has been updated to include approximately 5,000 cases reported by the San Antonio Metro Health District stemming from a laboratory reporting backlog. More information may be found on the San Antonio website.

That San Antonio data reshuffling because of the antigen/antibody distinction has given a lot of fodder to my more skeptical Facebook friends that the numbers are being cooked for whatever reason that they're more predisposed to believe. Lots of rampant conspiracy theorizing is going on there.

[LebongJames 1813]

Only 232 new cases in Austin. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

[bolverk 29718]

8 minutes ago, LebongJames said:

Only 232 new cases in Austin. 

That's excellent news for us. What's also pretty kick ass for Travis Co. is the number of "active cases" here is really low compared to other population centers around the state. Sort by active cases and see who all is higher.

3,300 is still a shit ton, but I'll take it for now.

[NAVY 6747]

Great news. Way to go Travis county! 

[Johnny Sack 8397]

11 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Next to nurses, no one martyrs themselves on social media like teachers.