Unless some kind of unexpected zero hour delay occurs between now and the October 1 deadline, ICD-10 is coming to a Plastic Surgery practice near you (in fact, it’s coming to your Plastic Surgery practice). It’s the Final Countdown, people! Somebody cue me up a 1980s-style “get ready” montage!

Medical coding is a shared language that allows clinicians, insurers, and government agencies to effectively share information about a patient’s health. The coders in a plastic surgery practice use codes to communicate diagnoses and treatment procedures to payers.