Know someone who drowned from jumping off burning water skis? Well, there’s a new medical billing code for that.
Michael Meistar Been injured in a spacecraft? There’s a new code for that, too.
Roughed up by an Orca whale? It’s on the list.
Next fall, a transformation is coming to the arcane world of medical billing. Overnight, virtually the entire health care system — Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers, hospitals, doctors and various middlemen — will switch to a new set of computerized codes used for determining what ailments patients have and how much they and their insurers should pay for a specific treatment.
Image: http://www.nytimes.com/ - Michael Meistar
To read the original article: Roughed Up by an Orca? There’s a Code for That - NYTimes.com
