by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 23, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers
CMS is soliciting public comments on its “Hospital Harms” Quality measures which include hypoglycemia, acute kidney injury, opioid related adverse events, and – Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injury. The call for public comment closes on March 02, 2018. CMS has contracted...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 19, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Quality Payment Program
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine has published an update on the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Registry – “Driving Quality and Demonstrating Compliance.” The HBOTR is one of the specialty registries sponsored by the US Wound Registry (USWR). The HBOTR could be used...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 16, 2018 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, Quality Payment Program, US Wound Registry
Helen Gelly recently blogged about the HCC methodology that CMS uses to create risk adjustments and why it is a really big deal for wound care practitioners. Last year “Minuteman Health,” a Massachusetts based insurance company, filed a lawsuit in federal court...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 14, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
Happy Valentine’s Day to my patients and my amazing nurses. Watch the incredible video of this wound dripping lymphatic fluid: [vimeo 255462091 w=800 h=1422] This movie is of a man in his 70’s who has had prostate cancer with radiation to the pelvis and a DVT in that...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 12, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Big news is that California’s insurance commissioner has launched an investigation into Aetna after one of its former medical directors admitted under oath that all the decisions about whether to approve or deny care were made by nurse case managers and he never...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 6, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
The math for hyperbaric oxygen can be confusing. I wrote an article for Today’s Wound Clinic about the ethics of off-label hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I said I’d provide the math here. The earth’s atmosphere weighs down on us with a specific amount of pressure. If you...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 6, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
It’s official that we are in a flu epidemic. There are many reasons but one unique and worrying feature of this season is the fact that the ‘young invincibles’ are dying. Two things to remember are: people who have gotten the flu vaccine are less likely to die even if...