by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 14, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
What is this? It’s a relatively new off-loading device called a TOAD or T brace. I am trying it in a patient with bilateral plantar DFUs who is not a good candidate for a total contact cast. Caroline Fife, MD I’ve got a NEW Facebook Page – be sure to follow me there...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 13, 2015 | Quality Payment Program
CMS will be publicly reporting a sub-set of the 2014 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) measures on Physician Compare. Starting October 5, 2015, CMS is has set up a 30-day preview period for select quality measures through the PQRS portal—Provider Quality...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 12, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
At the recent fall Symposium on the Advancement of Wound Care (SAWC), I had the honor of speaking at the opening session entitled, “The Power of Numbers, Predictive Outcomes in Diverse Populations” with 2 eminent statisticians, Charles Cowan and Nigam Shah. It sounds...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 7, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Miscellaneous Musings, Nutrition & Wound Healing
This is an initial and a follow-up photo of a woman with an autoimmune disease that is causing horrible leg ulcers primarily on her knees. Her biggest problem, however, is that she weighs 88 lbs and doesn’t eat. I admitted her for malnutrition early in her course,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 6, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I recently got a complicated patient healed with a cellular product. I’d have to pay money back if Medicare reviews my claim because I used it outside of the coverage criteria. Based on the analysis that Dr. Marissa Carter and I performed, here’s a description of the...