04/01/2012    

PODIATRISTS IN THE NEWS

CA Podiatrist Named by WHO to Head New ICD-1 Retro Committee

WHO announced today that Dr. Harry Goldsmith, a podiatrist from Cerritos, CA has been selected to head a new International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-1R) Committee to deal with many of the problems which have plagued ICD-9 and the planned, and now delayed introduction of ICD-10? Goldsmith is currently the CEO of Codingline.com, a well-respected coding site. 

(L-R) Dr. Harry Goldsmith and Herman Cain

"WHO has decided that instead of complicating billing by adding thousands of new codes, it would be easier to go back to using a modernized version of ICD-1, which most providers actually understood," said Goldsmith. Former presidential candidate Herman Cain, CEO of Coding9.com had submitted his simplified plan, dubbed ICD-9-9-9, which contains only 9 codes. The plan was voted down after Goldsmith pointed out that podiatrists would only be paid 9 dollars, and the codes were only applicable to 9 toes. Cain commented, " I believe that Dr. Goldsmith only proposed his plan so that he could reuse his old lecture slides."

Source: April Fools News [4/1/12]