Imagine if lawyers had to bill like doctors

If Lawyers Billed Like Doctors
By: Dr. Wes | October 14, 2009
Imagine if lawyers had to bill like doctors:

Beginning July 1, 2010, under the Legal Billing Obfuscation Act of 2009, lawyers will receive their payments for services rendered after approval by a central US government Payment Distribution Authority (USPDA). To receive payment from the Authority plaintiff and defendant complaints must be coded and filed electronically using the International Classification of Legal Complaints, 10th edition (ICLD-10), copyright © 2009, American Bar Association and Legal Proceeding Terminology (LPT) codes, copyright © 2009 American Bar Association. The full publication of each of these codes will be available in print March 1st 2010 and in electronic form on DVD in July 2011.

To familiarize lawyers with the new coding scheme requested by the USPDA, a small sample for the complaint of “Spilling” is shown below:
•Spilling 200
◦Spilling, Water – 210
■Spilling, Water, Hot – 211
■with blisters 211.1
■without blisters 211.2
■Spilling, Water, Warm – 212
■Spilling, Water, Cold – 213
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•Spilling, Coffee - 240.1
◦Spilling, Coffee, Hot - 240.11
Spilling, Coffee, Hot, With Cream only - 240.12
■with blisters - 240.121
■without blisters 240.122
■Spilling, Coffee, Hot, With Regular Milk only – 240.13
■Spilling, Coffee, Hot, With 2% milk only – 240.14
■Spilling, Coffee, Hot, With Skim Milk – 240.15
■Spilling, Coffee, Hot, With Soy milk only 240.16
■Spilling, Coffee, Hot, With Sugar only - 240.17
Spilling, Coffee, Hot, With Artificial Sweetner (of any type, including, but not limited to Nutrasweet, Spenda, Sweet ‘n Low) – 240.18
◦Spilling, Coffee, Hot, With Cream and Sugar 240.16
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Pairing of improper complaint codes with legal proceeding codes will result in non-payment. “Up-coding” of legal proceedings shall constitute grounds for prosecution with some additional fines imposed by the IRS, as determined by the Office of Health and Human Services. For instance, pairing a legal complaint of “Spilling, Coffee, Hot, with blisters” to and of those of Divorce, same gender, living apart, male (or female) (shown below) will result in non-payment.
•Divorce: 100-199
◦Between husband and wife 100.1
◦Between same gender couple, living together, male, 100.011
◦Between same gender couple, living together, female, 100.012
◦Between same gender couple, living apart, male, 100.021
◦Between same gender couple, living apart, female, 100.022
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Valid code pairings for spillage include Accident codes (0010-0059), Assault codes (4400-4499), or Battery codes (5500-5599) provided documentation supports the requests for payment.

ScrappinMom wrote: Sounds like you're working on an ICD-10 upgrade!!

PST wrote:Putting on my lawyer hat (it's the one with the points and bells), I can tell you that we already have to bill like that, so it is unnecessary to imagine. It's called "task-based billing," and it originates with private insurance companies, not the federal government. It exists for the same reason, too. Those who pay for massive quantities of services want to automate the process for efficiency. We hate it too, but it's here to stay, and it has nothing to do with socialism. Doctors are stuck with private insurance companies, now and in the future under the pending legislation. One of the things they hated the most was having a different set of billing codes for every insurer. If you're going to have billing codes, then a uniform billing code set is a good thing.