by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 12, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I’d like to have some straight talk about the Hospital Based Outpatient Clinic, electronic medical records, and the misconception that two people can chart in an EHR at the same time in that setting. The hospital based outpatient wound and hyperbaric department...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 11, 2015 | Quality Payment Program
Last week I talked about the passage of legislation that finally got rid of the annual “Doc Fix” crisis, averting a 21% decrease in Medicare payments to eligible professionals by creating an incentive payment program referred to as the Merit-Based Incentive Payment...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 7, 2015 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality
Last week I saw a young man with terrible pressure ulcers who is just wasting away. He simply can’t eat enough to keep up with his nutritional needs. I gave him a case of nutritional supplements that I had. I am excited about the nutritional quality measure that...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 6, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Don't Miss This, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
I thought I’d spend the month of April thinking about vascular screening. Last week I saw a 55-year-old man who suffered a minor scratch on his left shin 6 months earlier. He is a heavy smoker. Before the injury his walking was limited by claudication. After the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 5, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy
Is anyone else out there noticing that they have to call for a “peer-to-peer” every time they want to get an advanced therapeutic approved for patients with Medicare HMOs? I try to be very judicious in my use of advanced therapeutics like cellular products and...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 4, 2015 | Quality Payment Program
On Tuesday April 14th, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to permanently repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth-rate (SGR) formula for physician payment. The SGR would have required a staggering and obviously untenable 21% cut in Medicare physician payments to take...
