Posted on 03/28/2014 5:03:31 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
You won’t read about the International Classification of Disease (ICD) on TMZ or hear it discussed on The View, but it has the potential to be an unpleasant October surprise in the health care world. It is a list of codes that physicians and hospitals use when billing insurance companies. These codes cover all manner of medical diagnoses for diseases, conditions, and injuries.
The first version of the ICD appeared in 1946, with periodic revisions since. Six months from now, on October 1, the latest version, the ICD-10, will be implemented in the U.S. We are late to the party, with other countries having implemented this over the past 15 years. The ICD-10 has already been delayed for a year, but the administration promises no further delays.
~snip~
The current version, the ICD-9, uses a 4- or 5-digit number to code for a particular disease, such as 540.9 for appendicitis. The ICD-10 will have up to 7 alphanumeric characters to specify a condition, such as S52.521A for “torus fracture of lower end of right radius, initial encounter for closed fracture.” And there are now over five times as many codes for doctors and hospitals to choose from.
But isn’t specificity better? Sure it is. Big data is the new frontier in medical research, making sense of the huge amount of generated health care data. But can this go too far?
In an effort to push specificity to the limit, some ICD-10 codes have gotten silly. Codes exist for being hurt at the opera (Y92253), walking into a lamppost (Y92253), walking into a second lamppost (W2202XD), getting sucked into a jet engine (V97.33XD), and being burned due to water skis on fire (V91.07XD).
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
People will do what they always do when asked to do the impossible, they will do what they can do and fudge the rest.
By making it more difficult to determine the correct ICD code for a situation I can foresee more and more claims being denied for “incorrect classification”.
Most ‘regular’ folks don’t know about these codes until their insurance doesn’t pay something due to a wrong code number and they get the bill. New docs get a rude awakening when they actually go into practice and have to deal with this .... lots of documentation required to bill certain numbers and it definitely impacts what you can bill/bottom line. IDC-9 already was taking hunks out of doc/patient time ... the new codes are just ridiculous, but then so is most of what the government regulates/mandates.
I don’t think you are seeing a doctor after being sucked into a jet engine... Is that the mortician’s code?
... or someone will write a short program that would “translate” the diagnosis into the proper code.
You wont hear this on the view, funny! These shows are out there for a purpose, to deaden the senses, to sit there in front of the TV like a mental patient in a straight jacket drooling on yourself is the goal. ABC’s world news with diane sawyer is the same, they wont tell you the news because they have been instructed not to. Lull them to sleep, feed them non information, repetitious garbage over and over so they cant see the changes being made that will effect them and thier children moving forward until it is to late
Yep, this will be a case of what I call "false precision." It's like carrying too many decimal places in a computation, a greater number than the accuracy of the quantities concerned.
A lot of time will be wasted trying to distinguish medical conditions that are differentially uncertain, and these will become the fodder for subsequent statistical studies that determine IPAB death panel decisions. Idiocy.
What a nightmare, I have dealt with insurance numerous times due to improper coding.
So long as weird accidents show up in emergency rooms, there will be a proliferation of codes.
I can guess the code “forehead laceration by Tuba” might be one of the 68,000 codes and that my son’s mishap with his friend’s tuba bell is responsible.
The bell was on the ground. My son stumbled and fell, cutting his forehead on the exposed meeting edge. It bled a lot but was not really serious.
What about getting sucked in to a jet engine after walking in to two lamp posts because you were blinded by a burning water ski on your way to the opera?
That’s their plan...
The first lamppost is covered: The second is not. It is clear on page 12,422 of your policy guidebook. Look it up.
I have no doubt there will be those who will do what is needed to get their phony changes paid. My concern is what has led us up to the point where it has become the norm to “cheat”. What the hell has our country become? What the hell have our once so proud people have become?
You reap what you sow!
2014 ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code Y93.J4
Activity, winds and brass instrument playing
Y93.J4 describes the circumstance causing an injury, not the nature of the injury, and therefore should not be used as a principal diagnosis.
Apparently, the International Classification of Disease is the 'Common Core' of medicine.
Too many laws leads to everyone being a criminal.
They are completely different instruments, each with its own designs, sounds and playing methods.
This is outrageous...
This is my business, and there’s debate in my department — delay it a year or not?
I couldn’t agree more! There is a separate code for piano... what, did they get a callous on their bum or over stretch the pinky finger?
If the mob kills you with piano wire, does it use the same code?
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