by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 28, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, SAWC
At the recent SAWC, the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders hosted Dr. Anitra Graves, the Medical Director for First Coast. Dr. Graves gave a fantastic presentation on the use of real-world data in Medicare coverage policy. I thought I’d provide some of the notes that...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 21, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, If I Were Queen
In the 30+ years I’ve been taking care of patients with chronic wounds, I’ve given a lot of thought to the things that are covered by Medicare and other payers (some of which, frankly, don’t work very well) vs. the things that are NOT covered, but work...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 19, 2025 | Pyoderma Gangrenosum
I felt guilty the day I decided I could no longer prescribe opioid pain medications to patients with severely painful wounds. I didn’t prescribe narcotics very often since that’s a bad way to treat any chronic pain, but it is sometimes necessary in acute vasculitis...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 16, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
This week, the Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Matthew R. Galeotti, delivered remarks at an Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Conference, announcing that the DOJ’s Criminal Division was “turning a new page on white-collar and corporate...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 12, 2025 | Miscellaneous Musings
Most of us know Dr. Lisa Gould as a skilled plastic surgeon and prolific wound care researcher and lecturer. However, I learned something else about her recently. Dr. Gould is also a classical guitarist, and she combines her skill as a musician with her skill as a...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 9, 2025 | The Patient's Voice
Patients have humbled and inspired me for decades. There’s a story that I have told few people, but more than 25 years ago, my daughter had a serious health crisis that shook my world. After taking 3 months off trying to find a way forward for her and our family, on...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 7, 2025 | Healthcare Payment Policy
Fierce Healthcare has reported that The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the Fraud Detection Operation Center (FDOC) to fight waste, fraud, and abuse. The “fraud War Room” is a real-time operations center which leverages the Fraud Prevention...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 28, 2025 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, The Patient's Voice
I just got this letter by email from a physician emphasizing (in addition to the ethical issues) the need for clinical studies of Cellular Tissue Products / Skin Substitutes on pressure ulcers. Thoughts anyone? –Caroline Dear Dr. Fife, I am writing to express a...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 23, 2025 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
Hi Dr. Fife, Here’s my two cents as someone who has lived this mess for a long time now. The root cause of this issue is the CMS payment structure. CMS has known about this problem this for years. Every year they talked about fixing it and every year they chose...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 21, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
The March issue of JAMA has an article about the “mode of death” in patients with heart failure. Yes, Cardiologists lead with “here’s how our patients die.” And yet, no one reads that and thinks, “Wow, cardiologists are terrible at their job.” To put this in...
