3 ms·

> The billing codes exist explicitly to limit the amount of independent thought that can be applied to something that is adequately summarized as "bit by a duck

> The billing codes exist explicitly to limit the amount of independent thought that can be applied to something that is adequately summarized as "bit by a duck, third visit". None of this explains why these codes are needed for billing though. We simply don't need to bill differently for these pieces of information. The visit might have all these tags for informational purposes, but the bill should be for "visit to GP" and that's it.

MichaelZuo 3y ago
That doesn't make sense, it's easy to imagine that subsequent visits will cost slightly different amounts in terms of resources, labour, etc... and require somewhat different procedures in terms of treatment.
- CogitoCogito 3y ago
  Your position is kind of ridiculous. That applies to every single business ever and yet magically hospitals can't get by without itemizing _everything_? Of course not. Besides nowhere but in the US is this normal, which alone demonstrates your claim that somewhat different procedures _require_ this to be totally false. The only reason that hospitals in the US get away with it is because of the ludicrous agreements that you sign when arriving (you agree to pay whatever magical amounts we decide to bill you...). If those contracts were unenforceable (as they should be), hospitals wouldn't come up with this idiocy and would charge things simpler and would tell you ahead of time what your cost will be.
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    Have you never seen or heard of anyone getting seriously bitten by an animal before? It's not at all some mystery or make-work that the initial and subsequent visits for treatment will differ somewhat, do you not believe this?
petsfed 3y ago
The application is so misunderstood that I called them billing codes, when these are in fact diagnosis codes. They exist primarily to simplify records transfer when you go to a new clinic/hospital/doctor/whatever, and secondarily to allow the NIH to track how a given health risk develops over time.

MichaelZuo 3y ago

That doesn't make sense, it's easy to imagine that subsequent visits will cost slightly different amounts in terms of resources, labour, etc... and require somewhat different procedures in terms of treatment.

CogitoCogito 3y ago
Your position is kind of ridiculous. That applies to every single business ever and yet magically hospitals can't get by without itemizing _everything_? Of course not. Besides nowhere but in the US is this normal, which alone demonstrates your claim that somewhat different procedures _require_ this to be totally false. The only reason that hospitals in the US get away with it is because of the ludicrous agreements that you sign when arriving (you agree to pay whatever magical amounts we decide to bill you...). If those contracts were unenforceable (as they should be), hospitals wouldn't come up with this idiocy and would charge things simpler and would tell you ahead of time what your cost will be.
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  Have you never seen or heard of anyone getting seriously bitten by an animal before? It's not at all some mystery or make-work that the initial and subsequent visits for treatment will differ somewhat, do you not believe this?

petsfed 3y ago

The application is so misunderstood that I called them billing codes, when these are in fact diagnosis codes. They exist primarily to simplify records transfer when you go to a new clinic/hospital/doctor/whatever, and secondarily to allow the NIH to track how a given health risk develops over time.