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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: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Unfortunately, that would mean that there would be even fewer doctors available for Medicare patients.


41 posted on 03/28/2014 7:49:22 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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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.

Boy, ain't that the truth! I had several jobs where most employee energy went into gaming the system in ways to make it appear they were doing the impossible in order to stay off all the sh** lists.


42 posted on 03/28/2014 7:49:24 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: MamaTexan


Apparently, the International Classification of Disease is the ‘Common Core’ of medicine.”
****************
We have a Winner! IDC has now made itself a disaster as large as Common Core. Now guess who is going to suffer and and who is going to get rich.


43 posted on 03/28/2014 7:51:01 AM PDT by mongo141 (Revolution ver. 2.0, just a matter of when, not a matter of if!)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

“...being burned due to water skis on fire (V91.07XD)”

That must have been one helluva show!


44 posted on 03/28/2014 8:20:14 AM PDT by Nik Naym (It's not my fault... I have compulsive smartass disorder.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Also, under Directive 10-289, no one will be permitted to catch a disease or suffer an injury that is not already listed in ICD-10.


45 posted on 03/28/2014 8:26:03 AM PDT by Colinsky
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Wonder what the code is for “head exploded while FReeping?”


46 posted on 03/28/2014 8:34:29 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. ~Steve Earle)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

bkmk


47 posted on 03/28/2014 8:37:18 AM PDT by AllAmericanGirl44
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To: afraidfortherepublic

It does mean transitioning out Medicare patients, leaving only those who need Medicare. The rest, who still have taxable income, should get tax relief in exchange for using private health care instead of Medicare. Sweetened a little so they actually get more money by not using it.

This will free up a lot of doctors to take the remaining Medicare patients.


48 posted on 03/28/2014 8:38:12 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (WoT News: Rantburg.com)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

You know, few years back I saw some pics of the aftermath of someone getting sucked into a jet engine.

Not sure why a medical treatment code would be needed. Instead of the number for the local IHOP to borrow some spatulas.


49 posted on 03/28/2014 8:39:22 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Which one is male homosexual? Which one is gun owner? < /sarc >


50 posted on 03/28/2014 11:10:30 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: dglang

“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.”

I guess that is why there is a code for that! Incredible.


51 posted on 03/28/2014 12:24:49 PM PDT by greatvikingone
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