by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 21, 2024 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
Last week I attended the inaugural Cellular, Acellular, and Matrix-like Product (CAMP) Summit. It was a very interesting and well-run meeting. I will digress to mention the acronym “CAMP” which is gaining traction over the more awkward (and possibly obsolete) Cellular...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 19, 2024 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
Five months ago, I posted a blog about the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) posting special instructions on how to submit a claim for CTP/skin subs that was $100,000 or more. I was horrified. By way of background, you need to know that one of the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 15, 2024 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes
A friend sent me this email from a Cellular Tissue Product (CTP) / skin substitute rep. The comments/questions in the green boxes are mine. I ran out of words a long time ago. Message me if you have any words. (In the “cost measure” piloted by CMS, according to my...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 23, 2024 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
Medicare updates compared to inflation chart (Cumulative) (ama-assn.org) Physicians’ Medicare payments were cut 3.37% on Jan. 1, 2024, on top of a 2% cut that that occurred last year. In total, Medicare physician pay has fallen 26% since 2001 (inflation-adjusted...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 19, 2024 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
Many thanks to Sharon Hannan, Executive VP of Integumetrix, for her insightful reaction to this article. –Caroline Dr. Fife, As a previous Director of Wound and HBO services at a major hospital system, I can attest to the inaccuracies of hospital financial data...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 27, 2023 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, CTP / Skin Substitutes, Fight the Good Fight
JAMA just released an editorial about the impact of greed on the US healthcare system. I want to be very clear about the fact that I am devoted to the free market. If history and human psychology teach us anything, it is the value of a free market economy. With the...
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...
