by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 25, 2019 | Healthcare Payment Policy
“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7) “Sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind,” is a Bible verse from the Book of Hosea, a prophet of Israel. He was warning the people of a coming judgment for foolish behavior. The phrase is a...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 23, 2019 | Healthcare Payment Policy
Five years ago, Dr. Guy Clifton, a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow, neurosurgeon, Congressional aid and author of the book Flatlined: Resuscitating American Medicine, spoke at the fall SAWC in a poorly attended session. Most Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound care practitioners...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 14, 2019 | Miscellaneous Musings
One of the things I appreciate about the Catholic Health Initiatives/St. Luke’s hospital system with which I’m affiliated is that every meeting, whether in person or via conference call, begins with a “Reflection.” Our lives are so pressured, there’s precious little...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 10, 2019 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, Healthcare Payment Policy
Guest blog post by Dr. Helen Gelly Using the claims data from Medicare that are publicly available, a newly published study which I co-authored looked at various parameters that will eventually impact the bundled pricing payment model. Because a number of insurance...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 8, 2019 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Guest blog post by Dick Clarke of National Baromedical Services On August 1 of this year, a bill entitled the “North Carolina Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Treatment and Recovery Act” (House Bill 50 / SL 2019-175)...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 7, 2019 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers
WPS Government Health Administrators (GHA) is a Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) and its Local Coverage Determination (LCD) on Wound Care became effective on April 16, 2018. The U.S. states impacted by the WPS LCD on Wound Care are: Jurisdiction 5 (J5) –...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 4, 2019 | Healthcare Payment Policy
On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order to equalize payment among sites of service. The order says that HHS should make sure Medicare pay and policies “encourage competition and a diversity of sites for patients to access care,” and directs CMS to look...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 2, 2019 | Fight the Good Fight
Dear Diary, I AM SO SPECIAL! Today I was treated with another new “Cellular and/or tissue based product!” Sometimes it’s big enough to be cut and put on all of us, and sometimes it’s so small that only one of us can get the special treatment. I always say, “PICK ME!...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 30, 2019 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Quality Payment Program, US Wound Registry
Do you still have the photos of the first patient you treated with the VAC? Here are the 1997 photos of my first VAC patient, only 2 years after the device was cleared by the FDA. I know the photo quality is terrible – they were originally Polaroids! My point is that...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 26, 2019 | Miscellaneous Musings
I recently spoke at a conference where an artist depicted each speaker’s presentation visually. This is how he interpreted my rapid fire, “Current state of wound care in 15 minutes.” Maybe later I’ll post some of the slides for comparison. In the meantime, this...
