by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 5, 2022 | Fight the Good Fight, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
The American Medical Association (AMA) has just adopted a resolution opposing the unsafe use of so-called “mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy” in “mild hyperbaric facilities.” You can find more information below and in the link, but let me first illustrate WHY this issue...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 3, 2022 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, Healthcare Payment Policy, Tales of the Medicare Disadvantaged
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a Request for Information seeking public comment on the Medicare Advantage program. The goal of this program was described as, “more equitable, high quality, and person-centered care that is affordable...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 2, 2022 | Fight the Good Fight
It’s 2 am and I am up with a migraine but at least I have figured out why. Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia due to malabsorption syndrome. I was pretty sick by the time I sought help because the onset of the anemia was insidious (5+ years)...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 22, 2022 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, Fight the Good Fight, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
I will probably get a lot of unhappy messages about this post, but given the sweeping changes that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed for cellular and/or tissue-based products (CTPs), it might be time to “say the quiet part out loud.”...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 21, 2022 | COVID-19, COVID-19 & HBOT, Fight the Good Fight, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
COVID-19 infection can lead to a wide range of persistent physical, neurocognitive, and neuropsychological symptoms. I have seen a lot of patients (and a few friends) suffer from “long haul COVID,” and personally, the possibility of living with long term cognitive...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 20, 2022 | Don't Miss This, Fight the Good Fight, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
For many years I was the director of a very large lymphedema clinic at the Texas Medical Center. I worked with 6 fabulous manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) therapists. The therapists and the patients taught me nearly everything I know about lymphedema because for many...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 18, 2022 | Nutrition & Wound Healing
Check out this presentation on my process of screening for malnutrition among patients with chronic wounds, and the additional evidence supporting a nutritional algorithm for outpatient wound centers. I reviewed two case study examples of limb salvage that...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 14, 2022 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
The 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (CMS-1770-P) went on display late afternoon July 7, 2023. The proposed rule involves sweeping changes to the way that cellular and/or tissue based products for skin wounds (CTPs) are paid for in the physician office setting....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 13, 2022 | Fight the Good Fight
CMS will be convening its open door forum today at 2 pm and address the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule. This is an opportunity to ask questions and hear also others who ask them. There is a lot in the PFS that could impact the delivery of wound care...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 27, 2022 | COVID-19, COVID-19 Diaries
On March 26th, 2020, I posted the first installment of the COVID Diaries, written by a critical care doctor who was on call in the Intensive Care Unit the weekend that the first desperately sick COVID-19 patients began to show up at her hospital. As the tidal wave of...
