Medical Service Codes Go From 18,000 to 140,000

“What’s more, Obamacare increases the fine for billing errors from $11,000 per item to $50,000 without the government even having to prove intent to defraud”.

Does anyone realize what a burden this places on Hospitals and physician offices? I will tell you what this is all about. Proper coding  is the act of giving a code or number to one’s illness,and indicates the amount of reimbursement of funds the Hospital or Doctors office will receive. The number one reason for refusal, or penalty is the incorrect code being assigned. How are the people known as coders, ever going to be able to keep track of all of this? How will the Physician be able to assign the correct code? Even if they do it in good faith, a review will no doubt turn up a discrepancy, and either denial or penalty will be the outcome. This will be the end to medicine. Click to enlarge below: 

HT: Carpe Diem

Medicare’s billing codes are a complicated, convoluted mess and deciphering them can sometimes be more art than science. Both Republicans and Democrats huff and puff against “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicare. And they have already enacted Stasi-style laws such as the False Claims Act offering nurses, patients and other whistleblowers 15 percent to 30 percent of any money recovered if they report improper billing practices by providers.

More chillingly, however, the administration is defining Medicare fraud down to include “unnecessary” and “ineffective” care. And to root this out, it plans to make expanded use of private mercenaries—officially called Recovery Audit Contracts—who will be authorized to go to doctors’ offices and rummage through patients’ records, matching them with billing claims to uncover illicit charges. What’s more, Obamacare increases the fine for billing errors from $11,000 per item to $50,000 without the government even having to prove intent to defraud.

There is nothing left but the coercive apparatus of the state to keep patients and doctors in line. More at Obamacare hires bounty hunters to come after Doctors

 The war continues Justice Dept declares war on Doctors 

Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before the House Judiciary Committee’s oversight hearing on May 13. In a landmark action against Idaho physicians, the Justice Department has unambiguously stated that refusal to accept government price controls is a form of illegal price fixing.

As I’ve long suspected, “health care reform” has emboldened the Justice Department to take a more active role in enforcing government price controls against physicians. Today the Antitrust Division, joined by Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, forced a a group of Boise orthopedists to accept price controls for worker’s compensation and HMO contracts as part of a settlement accusing the doctors of “price fixing”

The FTC has hinted at this when it’s said physicians must accept Medicare-based reimbursement schedules from insurance companies. But the DOJ has gone the final step and said, “Government prices are market prices,” in the form of the Idaho Industrial Commission’s fee schedule.