by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 7, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
It happened again. Someone asked me if it was possible to use real world data for a comparative effectiveness study in wound care. There was a fantastic presentation on this topic given in 2016 at ISPOR (the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 3, 2020 | COVID-19, Miscellaneous Musings
I don’t know about you, but I could use a laugh. I was considering putting a Prozac salt lick in the kitchen when a colleague sent me a link to an article about a bra that can be transformed into two facemasks. “The Emergency Bra can be transformed into two...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 2, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Quality Payment Program
Deadlines are approaching for Physicians to submit hardship exemption paperwork to CMS. Depending on your situation, requesting an exemption could spare you penalties under MIPS. I will be the first to admit that this process is darn confusing when it’s business as...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 1, 2020 | COVID-19, COVID-19 & HBOT, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Check out this news article about HBOT being used to avoid intubation in severely ill COVID-19 patients at Grenwich Hospital in Connecticut. “They’re constantly panting for air, breathing at about 45 to 50 breaths per minute… But once in the chamber, patients...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 25, 2020 | COVID-19
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The very first Thanksgiving followed a period of truly terrible trials for the Mayflower survivors. A large percentage of the original passengers had died of hunger and disease, and their lives were still difficult. Artist conceptions of the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 24, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
The Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research, Shamir (Assaf-Harofeh) Medical Center in Israel has just published a new study indicating that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has “senolytic” (anti-aging) effects. The study is reported ahead of print in the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 23, 2020 | COVID-19, Dr. Marissa Carter
Dr. Carter has posted a new article on her own blog about COVID-19. “Things are not looking good in regard to the COVID-19 virus. Infection rates are totally out of control…“ –Caroline Caroline Fife, M.D.Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 20, 2020 | COVID-19, Healthcare Payment Policy
As a result of the pandemic, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has invoked its Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances policy (click the link to download the PDF) and is allowing participants in the Merit Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) to...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 19, 2020 | Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers
In honor of “World Wide Pressure Injury Prevention Day,” I’d like to propose that we acknowledge that severe pressure injuries (and probably “stage 1 pressure injuries”) form from the inside-out due to the compromise of named blood vessels that supply a 3-dimensional...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 12, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
Thank you to Dr. Helen Gelly for providing this guest post about Medicare denials for radiation proctitis. –Caroline Why are Medicare charges for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) denied when treating radiation proctitis? National Coverage Decision (NCD) 20.29...
