Code Blue

Obamacare, the gift that keeps on giving, is responsible for a new federal mandate that increases the number of codes used to translate medical information between medical providers and insurance companies. There are currently 18,000 codes used to describe an injury, where it took place, and how it was remedied.  Obamacare increases the number of codes to around 140,000.  According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, "There are codes for injuries in opera houses, art galleries, squash courts and nine locations in and around a mobile home." "It will also have a code for recording that a patient's injury occurred in a chicken coup."  Is this really helpful?

The federal agencies charged with developing the new system is collectively known as ICD-10, for International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision.  "It's for accuracy of data and quality of care," says an advisor at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Some of the new provisions include coding to describe "bizarre personal appearance", or "very low level of personal hygiene."  A W22.02XA for example is code for "walked into lampost, initial encounter."  That's to distinguish it from a W22.02XD, "walked into lampost, subsequent encounter."  Not dumb enough for you?  How about a  V91.07XA, code for "burn due to water-skis on fire."  I suppose a person who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 could be coded OV.08 or "uninformed."  Someone who plans to vote for him again in 2012 should  be labeled "mentally challenged."

One of the more upsetting aspects of the article was the fact that there exists in our country a credentialing organization known as the American Academy of Professional Coders.  If that isn't a sign that government busybodies have truly run amok then I don't know what is.  Honestly, wouldn't you rather tell your wife that you were going to Las Vegas for the Adult Video Awards, then to a convention of coders?





     

Obamanomics

Here in the City of Saginaw, $19 million in stimulus funds are being spent on cleaning up blighted neighborhoods by leveling houses and rehabbing others.  So far taxpayer funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act have rehabbed a dozen homes, raised and additional 250, and acquired a couple of hundred more.  Sounds terrific doesn't it?  What's even more terrific is the price that some lucky buyer gets to pay for one of these rehabs.  $130,000 in stimulus money was used to rehab one particular house and was flipped for $34,900!  Another was...wait, what?  Yes, that's right.  Most of these homes are being fixed up at a cost that is four to five times more than what they will fetch on the open market.  Still sound terrific?

In 2009, $3.2 million in stimulus funds was provided to Arlington, VA for energy grants.  According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly $300,000 was used to install solar panels on a local library.  By doing so city officials hope to save $14,000 annually on their electric bill.  Unfortunately the fancy solar panels only last 10 to 15 years, so the $300,000 that was spent will only net a total savings of $150,000.  Speaking of solar power what's happened to all those "green" jobs that were promised?  In just the past two weeks Evergreen Solar and Solyndra, both prime examples of Obama's green jobs initiative and subsidized taxpayer investments, have gone belly-up throwing thousands out of work and losing  hundreds of millions in credits and loans.

Joseph Goebbels, Adolph Hitler's Propaganda Minister, is often attributed (in error perhaps) as saying "A lie repeated often enough will become truth."  No matter how many times the Obama administration, the media, Democrats, progressives, liberals, what have you, tell us how necessary and wise their "investments" are, they simply cannot be trusted nor believed.  The government cannot replace the free market without great harm to both freedom and commerce.  Two plus two will never equal five!