by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 21, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
In January, a 5-year-old boy was killed in a monoplace hyperbaric chamber fire in Michigan. Now three people who operated the facility have been charged with second-degree murder. In response to the tragedy, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) president Dr....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 19, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
Check out Knicole Emanuel’s recent blog post about CMS monetary recoupment before full adjudication. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has the authority to recoup alleged overpayments from healthcare providers before the full adjudication of an...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 17, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
An article in JAMA Dermatology reviews the wound characteristics of a series of 29 patients hospitalized with confirmed xylazine exposure. Xylazine was originally developed as a veterinary sedative, anesthetic, and muscle relaxant. Although xylazine is not an opioid,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 14, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
By now I suppose everyone thinks that I am employed by one of the GLP-1RA marketing firms. I have still not decided exactly where to fit this exciting new drug in the armamentarium of a wound care practitioner, but so far the drugs have potential use in just about...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 5, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
There’s a line from Men in Black where Agent K says, “There’s always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 3, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
This Modern Healthcare article from 2/26 is behind a paywall, but I am posting the link anyway. The article reports that earlier in February, a federal judge “partially advanced a potential class action lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group and its UnitedHealthcare...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 28, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
Migraines are the bane of my life, but I’ve gotten relief from Botox injections to trigger points. This was working fantastically for a year, until suddenly my insurance company decided to deny the prior authorization (PA) request. It took six months to get it...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 19, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
Some of you have alerted me to new taxonomy codes that are relevant to the practice of wound care. This seems like huge news to me! I am listing a few of them below, with some explanation of what the components of the code mean. I do not know, for example, if an...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 17, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, Miscellaneous Musings
The AP (2/7, Stobbe) reported, “The U.S. winter virus season is in full force, and by one measure is the most intense in 15 years.” According to the AP, “one indicator of flu activity is the percentage of doctor’s office visits driven by flu-like symptoms.” Two weeks...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 14, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
On January 30th, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Journavx (suzetrigine) 50 milligram oral tablets, a first-in-class non-opioid analgesic, to treat moderate to severe acute pain in adults. Journavx reduces pain by targeting a pain-signaling pathway...
