ST(H)EALTH CODES

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You might remember the restaurant menu showing food names replaced with electronics and office supplies so that workers who could expense supplies (but not meals) could bill Big Corporate for an optical mouse (couscous salad with grilled salmon). Don’t forget to add a lightning to 3.5mm adapter (aka green juice).

Rumor has it that the American Medical Association thwarted a similar stealth naming plot. When they were updating the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) system, which healthcare providers use to code medical services and procedures, some imp got under the hood and salted the records with stealth codes. Abortion now mapped to arthrocentesis; birth control showed up as corticosteroid injection. I’m just circulating rumors and not recommending anybody do this. But if you have the internal damage-control email that addressed this, I’d love to see it.