Seriously --
Can you imagine a career in "medical coding services" --
8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 25 years??
Personally, I would die of suffocation in a job like that.
Wouldn't you be just a little tempted to slip in a few outrageous codes just to lighten up the day?
From a practical point of view, I can't see any difference.
I just use the Google search or the CMS search to find a reasonable code, then I put it in the Add Code list in AC.
The fact that there are multiple codes that can describe the same condition, or that infinite degrees of precision are possible (presumably, you could specify the pod from which the killer whale that struck you came---) is largely irrelevant to a general family practice.
Just like you don't have to know the entire Oxford English Dictionary or know a gerund from a past participle to make yourself understood in ordinary English.
