Government Gone Wild: Medical Service Codes Multiply By Ten!

By on September 19, 2012 in News


Bitten by a...

Wall Street Journal

Today, hospitals and doctors use a system of about 18,000 codes to describe medical services in bills they send to insurers. Apparently, that doesn’t allow for quite enough nuance. A new federally mandated version will expand the number to around 140,000—adding codes that describe precisely what bone was broken, or which artery is receiving a stent. It will also have a code for recording that a patient’s injury occurred in a chicken coop.”

See the code.

Via Mark Perry, who adds: “A search of the code database reveals that there are 12 codes for injuries from alligators.”

government medical billing


Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

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  • http://n.a. Cindy Hawkins

    But they still get basic stuff wrong. I’m involved in local animal rescue and was bitten by a stray cat, who we later captured and tamed and has been a family pet for four years. (No, he never bit anyone again) I did the right thing tho’ – and got the bite looked at, and the proper shots. All the same, it took nearly two years to get the damned insurance forms properly processed, with snafus abounding. Because, unless the i’s are all dotted and every t crossed, your insurance carrier (that is if you are fortunate enough to even HAVE coverage) will kick it back, unpaid. Medical billing errors, incorrect coding only the tip of the iceberg, account for millions..make that billions in our country. You know, I
    would chuckle, if it weren’t so sad! Paperwork is often a wasteful, idiotic pursuit.

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