But hospitals generally try to fit their care into the most lucrative billing codes.

I glance at the new billing codes and protocols, but generally treat them as someone else's business.

To hackers, most billing codes are too much trouble to ferret out.

This allows for millions of billing codes, only a fraction of which are in use.

Legitimate customers each have a personal billing code, so the company knows who is calling and whom to bill.

Hackers seeking billing codes set their computers searching for them.

Thus, meaningful analysis of anesthesia outcomes is impossible from billing codes alone.

The billing codes used by hospitals are something else entirely.

The next step is to make sure the diagnosis and recommended treatment are properly reflected in the billing codes.

In our prepaid health plan, neither my patient nor I need worry about billing codes or coverage.