Monday, February 23, 2009

746.84

I run a Google Alert on Shone's Syndrome and its permutations. From time to time it throws up new articles and blogs with relevant information. Today, it delivered a link from a bulletin board for health insurance coders - the people who take the charts and translate them into insurance billable conditions as the basis of payment processing. Apparently, a health information coder was stumped on how to code a case with Shone's Syndrome and concurrent conditions:

"Shones syndrome w/subaortic stenosis and coarctation: Shones syndrome is 746.84
But for the subaortic stenosis and coarctation, sends me to 396:

Is 396.2, "Mitral valve insufficiency and aortic valve stenosis " the correct code ?"


The expert provided help:

"Shone's syndrome is coded 746.84 - if you read the notes under that (in the Tabular) - it gives you the codes for concurrent conditions - subaortic stenosis = 746.81 and coarctation of the aorta = 747.10. These are all congenital conditions which is why they are all 700 codes."


I don't know why I find this interesting. As a child I used to collect numbers. I felt there was a secret code to things around me and if I collected enough information I would find it. You know those little metal tags that are sometimes nailed to sidewalks or buildings? I used to record the numbers on them, the numbers on lamp posts in our neighborhood and the numbers on tickets. Well, now I am a Shone's Syndrome geek. I see it from the front and it amuses me to glimpse the way the coder sees it.

That could be Wren's file on her desk.

2 comments:

tamusana said...

What a fantastic world we live in, that one can eavesdrop on a bulletin board discussion among health insurance coders! It's creepy too. Especially, as you say, as they could be discussing Wren's chart for all you know.

In 1989 when Emily and I traveled together for 6 months, I was eating dinner with some other trekkers in Nepal and they were chatting (in the old-fashioned analog face-to-face style) about some women they'd heard about who had had a series of awful things happen to them--persistent skin rash, fainting, theft, physical attack--during their travels. It took me a while to realize that they were talking about us!!

Shannon said...

I know, isn't it creepy. It just makes me wonder who is googling all that stuff I posted out there before I became cagey ;)

It happens a bit around here that people 'know' Wren / Frost / me from the blog but not in person and then they kind of look at me funny and go "do you keep a blog?" or "do you know SUSAN?" and I go "Susan who? no?" and it turns out they are a friend of a friend.

I once walked into a children's store and the staff asked if that was "Wren from the blog?" and I had to admit he was.

I hope the insurance coders get Wren's file right because our surgery insurance bills are STILL coming through and there have been some denied due to double billing. No no no. We are not going to pay that!

Hope you're well. I have missed your comments.

Wren is now addicted to Sesame Street so i think of you often as an unavoidable mental tic.