These are some of the most out of the ordinary medical codes you might come across if you worked as a medical coder. If you’re a patient and see these on your bill, you might raise an eyebrow once you find out the meanings. Check out the following graphic for all 15 unusual codes.
V94.810 – Civilian Watercraft and Military Watercraft Involved in Water Transport Accident
W56.11 – Bitten by Sea Lion
Y93.D1 – Accident While Knitting or Crocheting
Y92.253 – Hurt at the Opera
If you are interested in being a medical coder, the average salary is $47,870. The job outlook has a 21 percent increase by 2020. Eighty percent of medical coders have some postsecondary education. Medical coders work in both clinical and non-clinical settings, some of which are hospitals, physician offices, long-term care facilities, dental offices, mental health facilities, government agencies, and insurance companies. Graphi provided by Topmedicalcodingschools.com.
Every time a person seeks medical treatment, healthcare professionals are required to use a specific code for billing and tracking purposes. The International Classification of Diseases, Revision 10 (ICD-10), was launched Oct. 1, 2015 — after 20 years of delays.
The new ICD-10 codes multiply the medical coding options available by a factor of five, jumping from roughly 13,000 diagnostics codes under the ICD-9 to more than 69,000 with ICD-10.
ICD-10 attempts to label every possible diagnostic scenario imaginable. Whether you’ve had an initial encounter with an orca whale (W56.21XA, W56.22XA or W56.29XA) or an unlikely repeat orca encounter (W56.21XD, W56.22XD or W56.29XD), been injured by a brass musical instrument (Y93.J4), or walked into a wall (W22.01XA, W22.01XD or W22.01XS), believe it or not ICD-10 has a classification for it.
Don’t believe us? Take a peak for yourself. Check out the ICD-10 Code Lookup Database or you can just look at the entertaining graphic below provided by Quill.com. The graphic illustrates 14 funny examples of ways people injure themselves and how ICD-10 classifies them.
A personal favorite? It has to be V91.07XA: Burn because of to water skis on fire, initial encounter. It’s easy to wonder how this happens once, let alone more than once, V91.07XD: Burn because of water skis on fire, subsequent encounter.
Take a look at the following graphic depicting some of the most bizarre ICD-10 codes, thanks to and provided by Quill.com. What will these codes, when aggregated over the next few years, say about us as a people? That we’re likely into, and injured by, some pretty weird stuff! Perhaps I’ll write a book.
The casualty claim arena involves evaluating and payment of claims for claimants who have suffered from an auto accident or workers’ compensation injury. This side of the health payment continuum has been omitted from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as a covered entity.
This means that casualty claim insurers are not required to abide by the standards set forth in HIPAA and that these standards only apply to the health payer. Omitting the ICD-10 in casualty claims from standards does have merit, but when it comes to standardization, all health claims should be adjudicated and paid in the same manner. Why should a provider charge differently and be paid differently when the payer of the claim is not on the health side? This is a question many casualty payers ask and not being part of the standardization only raises the question more.
There is no option for submission of claims by the covered entity to not be compliant by October 1, 2014 with the International Classification of Diseases, 10 Revision (ICD-10). Why is it a good idea to omit the casualty payer from these standards if the majority of health payments are made using this new standard? In addition, if providers are covered entities, then why would the casualty payer not speak the same code language? It’s almost like trying to communicate in a foreign country without the benefit of knowing the language.
