• Home
  • About
  • Categories
    • Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
    • Pyoderma Grangrenosum
    • The COVID-19 Diaries
    • Dr. Marissa Carter
    • Regulatory and Coverage Policy
    • Do the Right Thing
    • Don’t Miss This
    • Fight the Good Fight
    • Health IT & Wound Care
    • Healthcare Payment Policy
    • Miscellaneous Musings
    • Articles on PRESENT Podiatry
    • Editorials in Today’s Wound Clinic
    • Nutrition & Wound Healing
    • Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers
    • Quality Payment Program
    • US Wound Registry
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
Download the Physician Compliance Roadmap from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)

Download the Physician Compliance Roadmap from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 27, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and serves as the internal watchdog for HHS programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The OIG’s job is to monitor compliance with Medicare/Medicaid billing rules. The...
The National Hearing Test – a Follow Up on the “Do it Yourself” Hearing Test

The National Hearing Test – a Follow Up on the “Do it Yourself” Hearing Test

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 26, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight

Hi Dr. Fife, Thank you for your interesting and timely blog posts. My husband and I read the one about the Do-It-Yourself Hearing Test with interest. Unfortunately, our iPhones and AirPods are a little too old to use the Hearing Aid option. However, in case there are...
A Do-it-Yourself Hearing Test That Might Help Patients with ISSHL Get Help Earlier

A Do-it-Yourself Hearing Test That Might Help Patients with ISSHL Get Help Earlier

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 21, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight

I can’t believe that it’s been 20 years since I had idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL). I had been lecturing nearly all day to a group of physicians and naturally, it was Friday afternoon when I finished my last talk. When people came up to chat with...
Wound Care Practitioners Should Screen Patients for Sleep Apnea- Here’s How!

Wound Care Practitioners Should Screen Patients for Sleep Apnea- Here’s How!

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 19, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight

“You can’t fall asleep while I am talking to you unless we are married.” That’s what I say to all the patients who fall asleep in the exam room. It seemed humorous at first, until I realized that sleep apnea could be the reason that some patients were not healing....
Administration Seeks to Tear Down Digital Walls and Create a Digital Health Ecosystem: “This is a Movement – Not a Mandate”

Administration Seeks to Tear Down Digital Walls and Create a Digital Health Ecosystem: “This is a Movement – Not a Mandate”

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 14, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy

White House, Tech Leaders Commit to Create Patient-Centric Healthcare Ecosystem | CMS Health Technology Ecosystem | CMS “For decades, bureaucrats and entrenched interests buried health data and blocked patients from taking control of their health,” said HHS Secretary...
Whoopsie! Corrections From Donna Cartwright!

Whoopsie! Corrections From Donna Cartwright!

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 30, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy

I should leave the coverage interpretation to the professionals. I appreciate all of you who tell me when I make a mistake. Donna Cartwright — who is a genuine expert — provided corrections on that UHC policy: “Epifix and Grafix are the only amniotic...
2023 QPP Performance Data are Out: 14.56% of Practitioners Will See a Penalty in Their 2025 Medicare Payments

2023 QPP Performance Data are Out: 14.56% of Practitioners Will See a Penalty in Their 2025 Medicare Payments

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 9, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy

CMS has released Quality Payment Program (QPP) performance data for 2023. Under the QPP, payment “adjustments” (bonuses and penalties) occur two years after the “performance year,” so that 2023 scores impact a practitioner’s 2025 Medicare payments. It’s important to...
A Ruptured Appendix and a Broken System

A Ruptured Appendix and a Broken System

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 23, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers

Dear Dr. Fife, I am writing this letter as a general surgeon who is deeply concerned about our healthcare system. As you have pointed out in your blog, physician payments by CMS and private insurers are a fraction of what they were 20 years ago because physician...
Must Wound Clinics & Mobile Practitioners Report Pressure Injuries / Ulcers Occurring in the Home as SREs?

Must Wound Clinics & Mobile Practitioners Report Pressure Injuries / Ulcers Occurring in the Home as SREs?

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 20, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers

The National Quality Forum (NQF) has issued a request for public comment about their update on Serious Reportable Events (SREs). Every hospital-based outpatient wound center (HOPD) and “mobile” wound care practitioner needs to read this carefully. I hope all of you...
Myth of the Day: “I am Exempt from MIPS Because I am a ‘Mobile’ Practitioner”

Myth of the Day: “I am Exempt from MIPS Because I am a ‘Mobile’ Practitioner”

by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 16, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight

I hear the most interesting things about when Medicare rules apply and about the requirements of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). For example, two years ago, a doctor whose practice involved the application of CTPs/skin substitutes on patients in the...
« Older Entries
Wound Care Reimbursements

Recent Articles

  • Download the Physician Compliance Roadmap from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) August 27, 2025
  • The National Hearing Test – a Follow Up on the “Do it Yourself” Hearing Test August 26, 2025
  • A Do-it-Yourself Hearing Test That Might Help Patients with ISSHL Get Help Earlier August 21, 2025
  • The Devil is in the (Contractual) Details: Avoiding Potential Kickbacks in the World of Skin Substitutes (Guest Blog by David Traskey) August 20, 2025
  • Wound Care Practitioners Should Screen Patients for Sleep Apnea- Here’s How! August 19, 2025

Article Categories

  • Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy
  • Cellular / Tissue-Based Products
  • COVID-19
  • COVID-19 & HBOT
  • COVID-19 Diaries
  • CTP / Skin Substitute Arrests
  • CTP / Skin Substitutes
  • Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality
  • Don't Miss This
  • Dr. Helen Gelly
  • Dr. Marissa Carter
  • Events
  • Featured
  • Fight the Good Fight
  • Guide to the Lymphatic System
  • Health Information Technology and Wound Care
  • Healthcare Payment Policy
  • Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
  • If I Were Queen
  • Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
  • Medicare Audits
  • Miscellaneous Musings
  • Nutrition & Wound Healing
  • PAD Hall of Shame
  • Patient's Perspective
  • Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers
  • Pyoderma Gangrenosum
  • Quality Payment Program
  • Quiz / Survey
  • SAWC
  • Shin Radiation Madness
  • Skin Perfusion Pressure (SPP)
  • Tales of the Medicare Disadvantaged
  • The Patient's Voice
  • Uncategorized
  • Undaunted Spirit Award
  • US Wound Registry

Articles by Month

  • Facebook
  • X
©2025 Dr. Caroline Fife M.D. All rights reserved. Website design & programming by LI Web Guy Inc.