Purpose of Medical Coding:
Diagnosis
codes are used to track diseases and other health conditions,
whether they are chronic diseases such as diabetes
mellitus and heart disease, to contagious diseases such
as norovirus, the flu, and athlete's foot. These diagnosis and
procedure codes are used by government health programs, private health
insurance companies, workers' compensation carriers and others.
Medical classification systems are used for a
variety of applications in medicine, public
health and medical informatics, including:
Ø Statistical analysis
of diseases and therapeutic actions
Ø Reimbursement; e.g.,
based on diagnosis-related groups (DRG)
Ø Knowledge-based
and decision support systems
Ø Direct surveillance of
epidemic or pandemic outbreaks
