Ever Wonder Why Health Care is so Much Cheaper Outside the Country?
This is Kevin Outterson at The Incidental Economist:
In October 2013, the US health care system will undergo a dramatic coding change as we transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10….
[H]ospital inpatient procedural codes will grow from 3,800 to 72,000; physician diagnostic codes from 14,000 to 69,000. Implementation costs for a three physician practice may average $83,000, with the per-doctor implementation cost dropping to $28,500 in a ten doctor practice. (see Harris Meyer’s reporting in May 2011 Health Affairs). No one reimburses providers for these transition costs.
A perfect post at the perfect time. Uwe Reinhardt is asserting in a comment to today’s Health Alert that there is no alternative to this. But as you correctly imply in your heading, the international medical tourism market doesn’t have this problem at all.
I like your title.
Does anybody think all this coding is gong to cause costs to go down?
I agree with Ken. If you don’t need to meet international medical coding standards, then you’ve got a leg up over the competition.
I’ve heard a lot of grumbling about ICD-10, but most medical professionals that I know see it as long overdue.
Isn’t the whole industrialized world converting to ICD-10? Who reimburses other countries’ health systems for the transition costs?
I have just “divorced” CPT. I now bill based on time, as other professionals do. I refuse to be a CPT slave the rest of my life! And yes, I still have plenty of business.