The linked post are the numbers, the arithmetic, calculations of the average Medicare Part B, during the last 6 months of life.
The study apparently does NOT consider the illness… Only the Part B costs.
In 2019, the AVERAGE total Medicare Part B payments per treated beneficiary was $16,227.
16227*0.2= 3245.
If one assumes that there are several related large costs… Does this imply that there are many more very small numbers?
(In the same way that high income and billionaire wealth skews the average wealth)?
The median might be instructive?
The Maximum and Minimum might also be instructive?
Medicare n MediGap are insurance. People buy insurance for the "unexpected ".
@intercst commented above that he had MediGap “just in case”.
Are crises in which “outpatient” care is appropriate, more or less likely in the final 6 mm months of life?
My take away from the topic is “get a MediGap plan just in case”.
VN writes:
In other words, the health care industry is shifting from designating inpatient status to designating outpatient status… A designation that results in MORE income to the hospital, Drs, etc.
In the past, the health care industry got paid more for inpatient, more cases were designated “inpatient”.
Now, Medicare is limiting the fraud of that fountain of wealth, and the industry is turning to gouging individuals.
ralph