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By Jennifer Dixon 
 DETROIT _ As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into its fourth month, conspiracy theories swirl around the virus that has caused so much death, illness and economic hardship around the state.
 There are theories that medical experts are inflating the number of deaths to scare residents into complying with safety measures, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's executive order that requires residents to wear masks in indoor public places.
 There are also theories that if medical professionals inflate the number of coronavirus deaths, their hospitals or other facilities will get more money from "the government."
 And there's another theory: that the coin shortage that emerged during the pandemic is a sign that we're moving toward a cashless society and this will allow Big Brother to monitor a consumer's every transaction.
 While a banking official says the future for piggy banks may be bleak in the next five to 10 years, experts say the rest of these claims are just not true.
 Oakland County's medical examiner, Dr. Ljubisa Dragovic, said his office is not inflating the number of COVID-19 deaths. When the professionals in his office determine the cause and manner of death, they are guided by scientific methodology, and they are not making decisions to get stimulus money from the government.
 He said the office tests all bodies that it autopsies for COVID-19, but not to use COVID-19 as a cause of death, but to track the spread of the virus.
 "We've had some cases that were positive, but it does not mean the person died of the infection," Dragovic told the Free Press last week .
 For example, the office recently autopsied someone who had been shot. He tested positive for COVID-19, but the cause of death was gunshot wounds, the manner of death a homicide.
 As for getting more stimulus money if he writes more COVID death cases, he laughed.
 "I've not heard of any such arrangement. Not for me, my doctors, my investigators," he said. "We deal with this as usual."
 John Karasinski, director of communications for the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, was also adamant that all hospitals are accurately reporting lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases.
 "How much health-care providers are paid is completely unrelated to whether a patient has COVID-19 or another illness. A COVID-19 patient passing away does not result in any additional payment for a hospital," he said in a statement.
 He said COVID-19 has had a "profound negative impact to the finances of all hospitals, with the American Hospital Association estimating a total financial impact of $202.6 billion in losses resulting from COVID-19 expenses and lost revenue for hospitals and health systems over the four-month period from March 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020."
 Hospitals have received federal money because of impact on their finances from the pandemic, but states that were hard hit early on actually didn't get as much per patient as states with fewer cases, the Free Press reported last month.
 The Free Press reported that hospitals across the country received $175 billion in aid from the federal Provider Relief Fund, which includes money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
 But hospitals in the states hardest hit by the virus in March and April _ New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania _ got the least amount of federal support per patient, according to a 17-page report released in June by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
 Then there's the theory that the coin shortage means we're on the way to a cashless society.
 According to one theory, cashless means completely digital and completely traceable. And, no more piggy banks, no more bills tucked into birthday cards, no more Salvation Army kettle bells over the holidays.
 Patricia Herndon, executive vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Bankers Association, said the coin shortage was caused when COVID-19 forced the closure of many businesses that had cash sitting in their registers, which then went untouched for months.
 "The whole flow was shut down when everyone went to shelter in place," she said.
 And the trend toward fewer cash transactions started well before the pandemic, as consumers have become more and more comfortable with online banking and paying their bills electronically, she said.
 If COVID-19 had hit before the trend toward online banking had taken hold, she said, "you would have had a lot more disruption. People don't want to handle a pen someone else has used or dollars and coins" touched by others.
 "Movement in this direction is probably going to continue, depending on how long we have the public health aspect of COVID. There's less and less desire to exchange currency," Herndon said.
 "COVID is not the driver of this; we've been on this trajectory to do more electronic and mobile payments, for a number of years now."
 But even as the trend toward fewer cash transactions continues, Herndon said banks are required to monitor only certain transactions: those that appear to be suspicious, fraudulent or illegal. They are also in discussions nationally on their role in stopping drug and human trafficking.
 And there are other issues that banks also need to address: how to help a portion of the population that relies on cash and shies away from traditional banks and credit unions. Whether cash transactions will now be rounded up or down.
 "Do pennies and nickels really count? What's the lowest denomination?" she said
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Experts debunk conspiracy theories coronavirus cases are inflated to scare people