Comments on: Coding by Accident

By: Points of Interest #22 « Mind, Soul, and Body

Points of Interest #22 « Mind, Soul, and Body — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:41:48 +0000

[...] a roll this week. Here is a hilarious post looking at the absurdity of the insurance industry and the lengths they go to find the perfect code. If only their dedication to their actual customers and general health care quality was this [...]

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:10:56 +0000

I’ll take dizziness and giddiness for $500, please…

By: kat

kat — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:28:27 +0000

I decided to delurk to talk about my favorite ICD-9 and was beaten to it by the Happy Hospitalist.

Good ol’ 780.4 – Dizziness and Giddiness, which I suppose could be caused by being hit in the head with a keyboard.

By: mottsapplesauce

mottsapplesauce — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:41:51 +0000

Hysterical Dr. Rob! Here’s my favorite: 799.3 debility, unspecified.

By: Jonathan Dee

Jonathan Dee — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:18:14 +0000

Accident due to earthquake/eruption NEC ICD-E909.8
Accident due to earthquake/eruption NOS ICD-E909.9

I mean… really!?

By: Ry Jones

Ry Jones — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:09:42 +0000

the original source of ICD9 codes was the US military; as such, they needed to cover space-based warfare.

By: Barbara K.

Barbara K. — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:00:37 +0000

What about a code for delirium produced by reading all these ICD codes.

By: Dr. Val

Dr. Val — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:30:03 +0000

This is hilarious. What a beautiful example of bureaucracy at work. The humor, I suppose, was accidental.

By: Neumed

Neumed — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:42:58 +0000

The scary part is it all makes perfect sense to somebody.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:52:39 +0000

NEC = not elsewhere classified
NOS = not otherwise specified.
They are throw away terms meaning basically that you can’t be more specific.