The bloated upgrade to the coding system is coming, and the results won’t be pretty. It’s predicted that documentation requirements and costs will rise, while patient care suffers.

PookieMD wonders what if Starbucks adopted an ICD-10-like system:

I could code and bill for beverages as follows: a small cappuccino would be a 99212(01), a medium 99213(02), and a large a 99214(03), and jumbo would be a 99215(04). I could add modifiers to denote skim, 2% or whole milk. Shots of flavoring would require modifiers as well. So, a medium, skinny cappuccino with a shot of hazelnut would be a 99213(02)-7-13 (taking into account the ‘skinny’ or -7 and the hazelnut -13.) I would of course charge you, the customer, more for my nifty billing system.

It’s estimated that primary care doctors will have to see an extra 2.3 patients per day to offset the costs of implementing the system. Grim times ahead.