Nancy Pelosi famously said in 2009 that “we must pass it [Obamacare] in order to find out what’s in it.”
Since the passage of the unAffordable Care Act, every day Americans are finding out the horrible things that are “in it” — taxes, higher health insurance premiums, cancellations of healthcare plans, loss of the doctors we like, all of which are contrary to what Pres. Lucifer had blithely promised.
So it’s understandable that our suspicions are now on high alert, bracing ourselves for more “surprises” to come while fearing the worst.
The other day, Dec. 29, 2013, FOTM commenter Tina wrote this alarming comment:
his so called obamacare, is in 150 diff languages so far. There is a medical code calling for gas chambers, guillotines, poisoning ….
Another commenter James Mappy , who says he’s a 17-year Medical Claims Examiner for one of the top 2 HMOs in Minnesota, seconded Tina that indeed there is such a code. It is ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code E978: Legal execution. Mappy states “I verify that this ICD9 code is [...] accurate.”
So what is ICD?
It is the World Heath Organization’s International Classification of Diseases.
From Wikipedia:
The International Classification of Diseases (also known by the abbreviation ICD) is the United Nations-sponsored World Health Organization’s “standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes.” The ICD is designed as a health care classification system, providing a system of diagnostic codes for classifying diseases, including nuanced classifications of a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease. This system is designed to map health conditions to corresponding generic categories together with specific variations, assigning for these a designated code, up to six characters long. Thus, major categories are designed to include a set of similar diseases.
The International Classification of Diseases is published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and used worldwide for morbidity and mortality statistics,reimbursement systems, and automated decision support in health care. This system is designed to promote international comparability in the collection, processing, classification, and presentation of these statistics. As in the case of the analogous (but limited to mental and behavioral disorders) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM, currently in version 5), the ICD is a major project to statistically classify health disorders, and provide diagnostic assistance. [...] The ICD is revised periodically and is currently in its tenth revision. [...]
What is ICD-9-CM?
From Wikipedia:
International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) is an adaption created by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and used in assigning diagnostic and procedure codes associated with inpatient, outpatient, and physician office utilization in the United States. The ICD-9-CM is based on the ICD-9 but provides for additional morbidity detail. It is updated annually on October 1.
Anyone can look up ICD-9-CM by going on the ICD9data website, which calls itself “The Web’s Free 2014 Medical Coding Reference” that:
takes the official 2006-2014 ICD-9-CM and HCPCS coding books and adds 5.3+ million links between codes. Combine that with a Google-powered search engine, drill-down navigation system and instant coding notes and it’s easier than ever to quickly find the medical coding information you need. ICD-9-CM codes are used in medical billing and coding to describe diseases, injuries, symptoms and conditions.
What is ICD-9-CM Diagnostic Code E978?
On the aforementioned ICD9data.com website, the ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code numbers E000-E999 are for “Supplementary Classification Of External Causes Of Injury And Poisoning.”
The 2013 ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code E978 is “Legal execution”.
This is how the website describes ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code E978:
ICD-9-CM E978 is one of thousands of ICD-9-CM codes used in healthcare.
ICD-9-CM E978 is a billable medical code that can be used to specify a diagnosis on a reimbursement claim.
In an update for the year 2014, the ICD9data.com website says:
2014 ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code E978 (Final Revision)
Legal execution
- This is the final revision to ICD-9-CM E978.
- Beginning October 1, 2014, use an equivalent ICD-10-CM code (or codes) instead of E978.
- Until then, ICD-9-CM E978 is considered a billable medical code and can be used to specify a diagnosis on a reimbursement claim.
That same Diagnosis Code E978: Legal Execution is found on the website of the federal government’s Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMS.gov.
Together with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are the U.S. federal governmental agencies responsible for overseeing all changes and modifications to the ICD-9-CM. The CMS is located at 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244.
Here’s a screenshot I took from CMS.gov (click to enlarge):
This is how Wikipedia describes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), previously known as the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and health insurance portability standards. In addition to these programs, CMS has other responsibilities, including the administrative simplification standards from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), quality standards in long-term care facilities (more commonly referred to as nursing homes) through its survey and certification process, clinical laboratory quality standards under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, and oversight of Healthcare.gov.
Indeed, on the CMS’s “About” page, it lists the Obamacare website Healthcare.gov as one of the CMS’s websites.
To conclude, while there is no medical code in Obamacare “calling for gas chambers, guillotines, poisoning,” there is a medical code (E978) for “legal execution.”
We don’t know what the term “legal execution” means, and we should all ask why the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (and therefore the Obamacare website that the CMS oversees) has a medical code for legal execution — a medical code that “is considered a billable medical code and can be used to specify a diagnosis on a reimbursement claim.”
H/t FOTM’s James Mappy
~Eowyn