Slashdot Mirror
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."
The obvious temptation is to run, but that would be a mistake. NEVER show a turtle your fear.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
ICD-9 had codes for masturbation.
Go ahead and think about why I might know that. Scar yourselves.
sig not found
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
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
W5649XA
W902XXA
There are people who believe that, if something bad happens to someone, then that person did something to deserve it. The action to "earn" punishment might be reckless behavior, or the punishment could be divine retribution, but either way bad things only happen to bad people.
For that type of people, it's a justification for their belief that no one ever deserves a safety net in case all else fails. You might find that this drives certain political views.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
W56.49 "Other encounter with shark" + W90.2 "Exposure to laser radiation" is all I've got.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
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).
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
The 25 or so other countries who use these codes already have not yet imploded.
Statements like this make it clear that people don't understand the nature of the insurance industry.
They don't want to deny anything, as long as the other companies are forced to cover the same issue. That's why they want everything classified, so there is parity of coverage.
I know it sounds counter intuitive but insurance companies make their money by skimming a percentage off of every transaction. That's why lobbyists pushed through the HMO model, which gave them a 'vig' from small transactions that people could just pay for out of pocket. The higher healthcare costs are, the more money they make.
The important thing is that other insurers are forced to cover everything so they won't have an advantage by being able to deny things. Insurance companies want costs to be high so they can justify their exorbitant fees.
love is just extroverted narcissism
I just learned about this kind of injury recently. Apparently sea turtle rape of scuba divers is a not-as-uncommon-as-you-might-think issue, with drowning, compression/decompression sickness, and trauma being common effects, as sea turtles will force divers to the bottom of the ocean and hold them their for as much as an hour. Without being an expert myself, I'd wager cardio-respritory care would be needed in addition to trauma treatment.
This post is not intended to be humorous, this is an actual, serious issue I learned about with loggerhead turtles recently.
This isn't Twitter, there's plenty of room to post the full URL here. Unless you're just trying to hide a Goatse link...
Is 1563649 a prime number?
I believe you start with the most general, such as
C Malignant Neoplasms
and add details
C71 Malignant neoplasm of brain
C71.4 Malignant neoplasm of brain, Occipital lobe
In my experience, doctors don't look up anything. They write down what they did or what is needed for a referral and leave it up to their secretaries/receptionists to figure how to map it to the codes that the insurance companies use.
You CAN be severely injured by a lightning strike from a clear sky.
Hmm, let me check my list:
S444.11 Smote - Fire, Pillar from sky
S444.12 Smote - Fire, Spontaneous Combustion
S444.2 Smote - Salt, Transformation into pillar
S444.3 Smote - Lightning
Ahh, there it is.
Just to expand on that, I looked up the full titles for those codes:
W5649xA Other contact with shark, initial encounter
W902xxA Exposure to laser radiation, initial encounter
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.