It should be, if there's a pattern of it. The hospital admitted they coded it as a treatment of a fracture rather than a stabilizing splint. The patient didn't receive treatment of the fracture until the following day at a different, unaffiliated provider.

Shah received a letter from the hospital dated May 27 of this year, saying it had reviewed the records and discovered the bill was inappropriately coded: The hospital should have used the code for a splint, not a treatment. A month later, Shah got a new bill with a patient balance of $1,214.91 — $2,100 less than the original balance.