New orthopaedic reimbursement ties compensation to number of times ‘that’s what she said.’

Inland Empire, CA – In addition to the new ICD-10 coding that will soon be transforming medical coding, Orthopedic RVU’s will now be based on a cases average ‘that’s what she saids’ or TWSS’s.  According to a recent American Association of Orthopedic Surgeon (AAOS) press release, the move came after months of private negotiations between surgeon groups, with the AAOS finally entered in the backdoor discussions last week, prompting today’s announcement.  Steve Remi, an AAOS representative offered a statement: “Heehee…entered in the backdoor…”

Michael Reiswig, one of the surgeons responsible for the historic change gave his take: “It really was pretty intuitive.  Carpal tunnel releases were averaging 30 minutes per case, and like 0.7 TWSS’s. I mean, what can you say during a carpal tunnel release, 'looking forward to doing some hand work'? On the other hand, tibial nailings were around 90 minutes and 4.3 TWSS’s per case.  ‘This rod’s too big.’ ‘It won’t fit in the canal.’ ‘Just pound on it a little harder.’ It only made sense that higher compensation should be linked to the cases with more double entendres.” 

The orthopedic oncologists were the one sub-specialty opposed to the move, stating simply that they were 'getting screwed’.