From the Federal bureaucracy run amok: Doctors and hospitals use about 18,000 codes to classify their treatments for insurers. Now the federal government is mandating an expanded code which features 140,000 classifications.

See the story in the Wall Street Journal here.

The title of this post is a real new code. Among some others are: W22.02XA, “walked into lamppost, initial encounter;” W22.02XD, “walked into lamppost, subsequent encounter;” and R46.1 “bizarre personal appearance.”

“There codes for injuries received while sewing, ironing, playing a brass instrument, crocheting, doing handcrafts, or knitting…”

The big question: will your insurance pay if the coders accidentally enter a W22.02XD before reporting a W22.02XA?

Is this part of President Obama’s new jobs program for medical coders? Your tax dollars at work.