With all the concern and stress around the ICD-10 implementation, there is some levity to be found. Outlandish types of ICD-10 codes have been compiled for our viewing pleasure.
This interesting information was found on Healthcare IT News in their article, “10 most outlandish kinds of ICD-10 codes.” First up – code V9542XA: Spacecraft crash injuring occupant, initial encounter. I don’t know about you but I am thinking UFO. Another that caught my attention was V91.07XA – Burn due to water-skis on fire, initial encounter. This seemed so unlikely but it must exist for a reason.
We can laugh and muse at these but with all sincerity, the ICD-10 transition is a serious and important project. Important in many ways, but especially to the cash flow. Medical coding requires specialized expertise and systems tailored to the regulatory requirements in which health care providers, hospitals, and doctors deliver their services. Access Innovations, Inc., a leader in data integrity and content creation, has announced the Access Innovations Integrity Initiative (AI³), to provide tools and services for quality assurance and validation of medical coding. The system can be used to quickly and accurately validate medical coding or to locate errors in existing documentation. The cost savings are potentially huge.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
This is true. I realize they are very busy, but maybe when the lack of details starts affecting their finances they will do better.
There are plenty of codes that make you wonder about their specificity–and how much of this is necessary. The real challenge will be to get the physicians to provide the required amount of detail in their notes. They don’t always provide key details even on the current ICD-9 codes.