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.