by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 20, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
Dear Dr. Fife, I thought people should understand what happens to doctors who play by the rules when it comes to the use of Cellular Tissue-Based Products / Skin Substitutes in their private office. Here’s a spreadsheet explaining what happens to my practice (office...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 7, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
(Including How to Make it More Equitable for Practitioners & Patients) I got this thoughtful email from Dr. Timothy Johnson with a list of practical suggestions to help fix the broken system around CTPs/skin subs. He has given me permission to post his comments....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 17, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
This note to a physician was attached to the calling card of a CTP/skin sub rep. It shows the math that allows the doctor to make $3,680 profit per application of this CTP, and thus $14,720 profit, per patient, per month – in “Medicare patients only.” The...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 1, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
I have been trying to identify the problems in the CTP/skin sub industry in hopes that doing so could inform specific policy changes. Many weeks ago, the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders made five specific recommendations to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 24, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
Check out the entire series here. I’ve been asking how it is that CTP/skin sub companies can advertise “the spread” on their product? I have posted examples of this type of advertising displayed at medical meetings, on Linked in and sent as emails to practitioners. In...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 23, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
Check out the entire series here. I have been making my way slowly through the March 2023 report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), OEI-BL-23-00010, “Some Skin Substitute Manufacturers Did Not Comply with New ASP Reporting Requirements.” Some Skin...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 20, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
Check out the entire series here. “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” — Albert Einstein I previously posted the list of issues as I see them in this industry. Now I’d like to create a list of the attributes of a good...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 19, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
Check out the entire series here. “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” –John Dewey Thank you to everyone who has provided information or answers about this important issue. After reading your emails and messages on social media, it’s clear that...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 18, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
I have talked about this issue before, but now that the new LCDs governing Cellular and/or Tissue-Based Products (CTPs/skin subs) have been withdrawn (and while we wait to see what the MACs and CMS will do next), maybe it’s worth bringing up again. The use of CTPs has...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 17, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
I previously posted this ad from Linked in which has since been taken down. At the time, I thought it was some kind of joke. However, in the past few weeks, the way in which practitioners can make huge profits off the cost of a product has been explained to me. That...
