Death by coffin
or this:
or this
'Other' jellyfish? They must have customized that injury code for John Boehner.
Death by coffin
or this:
or this
...but wait, there’s more!
112008UPY0URS: Perforated intestine incurred while playing leapfrog with a unicorn.
AARGH1000: Severe blood loss from repeated paper cuts suffered while handling copies of the Affordable Care Act.
CC666Bsgwejrjk: Compound carpal injury from typing stupid unnecessary regulations.
17T$D3BT: Aggravated snorting of red ink by a Treasury Dept. official.
0ICU812: Choking injury for sword-swallowers and other friends of Barney Frank.
R0TFLMA0: Accidental spillage of a scalding beverage onto one’s genitalia after reading this article.
Suicide by Jellyfish you say? That makes me think Diana Nyad who insisted on swimming a record breaking number of miles in the tropical waters of Florida, teeming with Jellyfish. I have not heard anything from her since she finally broke the old record. Maybe Wheaties will give her a call.
Suicide attempt by other jellyfish huh.
One would almost think some sort of compound code for these things so part of it would mean something like “suicide attempt” and part of it would mean “by whatever.” So we could have suicide attempt by angry bull, suicide attempt by jumping off bridge, suicide attempt by attacking a policeman, etc.
Real code:
Boynton’s “personal favorite” is code V9027XA: “Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from burning water-skis, initial encounter.”
How in hell do you set your WATER SKIS on fire????? Who thinks these up? More important: WHO PAYS THEM TO THINK THESE UP???!!!
Ha! Very Good!
As usual, under the guise of “it’s for the chilren”
The REAL reason for this unnecessary complex mess is to cause doctors to throw up their hands & say; “I quit!”
The secondary reason is to give gubmint employees “something to do” (they’re sooo productive, don’t you think?)
Once most doctors quit, the few remaining can be more easily controlled (not to mention how “access” will be obtained by the suffering masses in flyover country - but the ‘little people’ don’t matter anyway).
I can think of very little the gubmint does anymore that I DON’T despise.
The point is to increase prosecutions for “fraud”.
Almost every doctor makes a coding mistake once a week. ICD-10 will ensure mistakes once an hour.
Every single doctor, without exception, will be able to be picked up as soon as she steps out of line.
I chose to look at the other side of the coin. I’m not certain I want to defend the codes but at least develop a better understanding.
Obamacare aside, the medical profession has had some problems coming into the digital age. Some have, some have not. The result is increased costs as efficiencies are dampened by those that have not made the effort to learn to cope with computers.
I suspect that rather than a group of wacko leftist revolutionaries around a conference table dreaming of wild unlikely accidents, the seemingly absurd codes are real, taken from actual ER records. Since there are abundant seemingly unlikely accidents and circumstances there are lots of codes.
I can cite one such seemingly ridiculous family accident treated in the ER.”Laceration by Tuba requiring sutures.” Somehow, my teenage son fell or was pushed, his forehead making contact with the meeting edge of his friends tuba bell that was laying on the ground. The contact produces a nice arc shaped laceration on his forehead. I won’t argue the merits of this accident having a separate code.
The codes produce uniformity within the greater system. We have them in all sorts of systems and conditions. One of the largest is the Harmonized Code of Tariffs where every item exported had a code. That is a widget made in Pakistan has the same code as a widget made in Argentina.
The medical codes are but one attribute of Walmart coming to medicine. The days of the mom and pop shop ended with Walmart. Mom and pop simply could not compete with Walmart economies of scale and distribution.
Obamacare has brought this incongruity in the medical business to the visible forefront. The economies from groups and scale are forcing those that choose to try to get along the old way to be a burden on the overall profession.
bfl