There Are Now Officially 70,000 Ways to Get Sick or Die
- U.S. transitions to new health billing codes on Thursday
- Billions of dollars in hospital, doctor payments at stake
Insurers began preparing for ICD-10 in 2010 and have been ready since the government first delayed implementation in 2012.
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There are 70,000 ways to get sick, hurt or mortally injured, and the U.S. is making them official.
On Thursday, U.S. hospitals, doctors and other care providers have to start using internationally developed standards called ICD-10 codes to bill government programs and private insurers in the nation’s $2.9 trillion-a-year health-care system. The codes cover everything from parrot bites to getting sucked into a jet engine.