Medical Billing Codes For Injury Via Turtle Among Thousands Created by New Law

A new government law has created an unusually precise list of injury codes for billing purposes. Currently there are 18,000 standard billing codes; the new law would expand that list to around 140,000. If you've been injured at the Opera, walked into a lamppost, pulled something while playing a trumpet, or have been attacked by a turtle, there's now a code for that. From the article: "The federal agencies that developed the system—generally known as ICD-10, for International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision—say the codes will provide a more exact and up-to-date accounting of diagnoses and hospital inpatient procedures, which could improve payment strategies and care guidelines. "It's for accuracy of data and quality of care," says Pat Brooks, senior technical adviser at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."

Comments

Flaming Skis

[Jodka]

My favorites:

V9107XA Burn due to water-skis on fire, initial encounter
V9107XD Burn due to water-skis on fire, subsequent encounter
V9107XS Burn due to water-skis on fire, sequela

Re:U.S. ICD-10 CM not the ICD-10

[Registered Coward v2]

Just to clarify, ICD-10 is maintained by the WHO. The clinical modifications to the ICD-10 in the USA are known as "US ICD-10 CM". Yes, they are very stupid

However, from an epidemiological standpoint, having better information about the causes of health problems will allow better study of cause and effect relationships between wellness and disease, for example. Even if it is a pain to implement (there must be a code for that).