by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 14, 2023 | Fight the Good Fight
The CDC continues to warn about the increasing incidence of both active and latent tuberculosis (TB) in the U.S. population and has asked all physicians to be on the alert for cases. Since all chronic non-healing wounds are a symptom of a disease, wound practitioners...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 11, 2023 | Fight the Good Fight
I’ve struggled with my weight all my life. I don’t need an alarm clock because my stomach will wake me up for breakfast. It infuriates me when skinny friends tell me that they “forgot to eat.” I have always suspected that anyone who forgets to eat has some kind of...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 24, 2023 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
It’s a poorly kept secret that audits of wound care services rendered under the Medicare fee-for-service payment system are so pervasive that I don’t know anyone who is NOT in an audit of some kind. The entire alphabet soup of auditing bodies are at work: TPE,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 23, 2023 | Fight the Good Fight
I am old enough to remember the days of thick paper charts stacked in the hospital medical records department. The medical records department was usually in the basement or some dark corner of the hospital, but would always have plates of cookies and pots of coffee at...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 17, 2023 | The Patient's Voice, Uncategorized
I have been raising awareness about the direct link between documentation and surgical dressing supplies – and why DME companies have become so “demanding” in terms of the documentation they need to see. The DME companies have been audited nearly to death by Medicare...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 15, 2023 | Uncategorized
I got yet another email from a patient about her experience in a wound center. She’s got many complex medical problems, but she’s a retired nurse and has a good sense of what works to heal her recurrent lower extremity ulcers. She’s wheelchair bound but manages to...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 10, 2023 | Fight the Good Fight
My friend and colleague, Dr. Mark Melin has been talking a lot about the endothelial glycocalyx (GCX) and why it matters to patients with lympho-venous disease and chronic ulceration. I’d been smiling and nodding, pretending that I understood what he was talking...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 3, 2023 | COVID-19, COVID-19 & HBOT
Like me, you were probably riveted and inspired by the “COVID Diaries,” which chronicled the challenges of an intensive care doctor during the early and worst days of the COVID pandemic. The author is now focused on the subacute care of the survivors and is...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 27, 2023 | Healthcare Payment Policy
A few days ago, I got one of those CMS “eblasts” about the results of Medicare CERT audits (Comprehensive Error Rate Testing). The audit looks at whether there is sufficient documentation to back up the claim against Medicare. In 2021, CMS estimated that, based on...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 16, 2023 | Nutrition & Wound Healing
This month (Feb 2023) Pittas and colleagues from Tufts published a systematic review article article in Annals of Internal Medicine about the possible value of Vitamin D in delaying diabetes onset (“Vitamin D and Risk for Type 2 Diabetes in People With Prediabetes A...
