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The October Surprise that Could Cripple the Practice of Medicine
The American Thinker ^ | 3-28-14 | Brian Joondepth

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; classifications; codes; deathpanels; diseasecodes; icd; icd10; medicalcodes; medicare; medicine; obamacare; zerocare
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To: WayneS
They should have developed separate codes for winds and brass.

Including sub-categories for the winds to indicate whether treatment involved removal of splinters.

21 posted on 03/28/2014 5:39:24 AM PDT by tacticalogic
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To: tacticalogic
Exactly!

I knew the folks at FR could do a better job of this than the government or the medical community!

22 posted on 03/28/2014 5:41:47 AM PDT by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th (and 17th))
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To: afraidfortherepublic

68,000???

Just going to have pull few all nighters and study harder......


23 posted on 03/28/2014 5:44:38 AM PDT by njslim (T)
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To: greatvikingone

interesting, however at the time of he incident, the
Tuba was not actually being played.


24 posted on 03/28/2014 5:47:35 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... History is a process, not an event)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

If a code is entered incorrectly and it gets into the government database, you will never be able to correct it. No one will have the authority or the skill (other than hackers) to change it. My prediction based on past dealings with bureaucracies, and the fact that this will be the biggest and most active database anyone has ever tried to manage.


25 posted on 03/28/2014 5:49:17 AM PDT by Rocky (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. George Orwell)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I’d be willing to bet that of those 68,000 codes hospitals will still use only 100 or so regularly.


26 posted on 03/28/2014 5:50:38 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Pearls Before Swine

I wonder what the IPAB death panel decisions codes will be.


27 posted on 03/28/2014 5:56:17 AM PDT by Diamond (He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people,)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Bureaucracy of, by and for the bureaucrats.
28 posted on 03/28/2014 5:57:28 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.")
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To: CIB-173RDABN
People will do what they always do when asked to do the impossible, they will do what they can do and fudge the rest.

They put one doctor in prison that I am aware of for not putting down the exact right code. I can't find the story, but it's been around.

29 posted on 03/28/2014 5:59:55 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.")
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To: CIB-173RDABN

Yup. The academics and bean counters are salivating at the “ data”.
But it will be Garbage In Garbage Out. We will find the general codes and use those.


30 posted on 03/28/2014 6:14:43 AM PDT by Kozak ("It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal" Henry Kissinger)
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To: greatvikingone
If the mob kills you with piano wire, does it use the same code?

Apparently, the Mob has its own code:

Ice pick in the neck: F***in' D.
Cement shoes: F***in' C.
Piano wire: F***in' B.
Two in the hat: F***in' Aaaa.

31 posted on 03/28/2014 6:16:07 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (Cogito, ergo armatum sum.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

If they arrested him, convicted him and sent him to prison over a simple mistake.... why are not all doctors in prison?

There is a difference between entering “wrong” codes to inflate your billing, and mistake in entering, unless it is your position that those entering the codes do so with 100% accuracy.

I stand by my statement. No one will use anywhere near those 68,000 code numbers. They will find the few that work and will use those.


32 posted on 03/28/2014 6:23:11 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (I do not doubt that our climate changes. I only doubt that anything man does has any effect.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

It’s important that we know how many people are bitten by a shark A SECOND TIME.

W56.41xA Bitten by shark, initial encounter ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code
W56.41xD Bitten by shark, subsequent encounter ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code

If only we could tie the codes to voter enrollment. Anyone with W56.41xD is ineligible to vote.


33 posted on 03/28/2014 6:31:43 AM PDT by LostPassword
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To: CIB-173RDABN
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.” ― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957
34 posted on 03/28/2014 6:35:03 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.")
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To: greatvikingone
or you got struck by a low flying piano (grand or upright?) launched from a mis directed trebuchet.


35 posted on 03/28/2014 6:36:41 AM PDT by spokeshave (OMG.......Schadenfreude overload is not covered under Obamacare :-()
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I had a young doc at a fairly new clinic for a while. He had a tablet and the clinic had top of the line software. Total eye contact about 15 seconds. Total time doc trying to navigate the tablet 10 minutes. Total investigative time 0. The tablet is suppose to magically diagnose and offer a treatment plan. All I needed were some Antibiotics a simple tongue depressor and flashlight could have shown. I don’t go there anymore. After Obamacare, Who knows how bad it gets? Unless you have cash, if it will be legal, medical care in this country is dead.


36 posted on 03/28/2014 7:02:24 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: afraidfortherepublic
Wonder what they would number these.


37 posted on 03/28/2014 7:12:23 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Sometimes you need 7+ more ammo. LOTS MORE.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

What’s the code for man-child president with big-a#s wookie wife?


38 posted on 03/28/2014 7:27:51 AM PDT by rwoodward ("god, guns and more ammo")
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I see considerable value in the future in having a “Physician-Patient Liberty Act” passed by congress.

It would say that if a doctor and a patient were willing to stay out of Medicare, Medicaid, and Insurance, they would not have to comply with things like HIPAA, and most other reporting beyond taxes and communicable diseases, they could do so without penalty.


39 posted on 03/28/2014 7:47:33 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (WoT News: Rantburg.com)
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To: greatvikingone

A sailor was inadvertently sucked into a jet engine on a U.S. aircraft carrier and he survived with minor cuts and bruises. There is a video on Youtube concerning that accident.


40 posted on 03/28/2014 7:49:14 AM PDT by dglang
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