by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 9, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
I just read an article in the American Medical Association (AMA) news focused on residency training that identified “8 traits that make great doctors.” The author, Ami DeWaters, MD, explained that when assessing their own competency, resident physicians (probably like...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 8, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
CMS has published an Outpatient Payment System (OPPS) correction notice in the Federal Register which contains additional information about the data error that led to CMS to arrive at an inaccurate cost for the hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) hospital facility fee...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 5, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
I know there are people out there who eat, sleep, and breathe Excel spreadsheets of clinical codes. God bless you if you are one of those people! That means we need you to comment on the design of the cost measure for “non-pressure ulcers.” I’ve provided the links to...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 2, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
I have posted a lot of articles about why under Medicare’s Quality Payment Program (QPP), the future of wound care practitioners is in jeopardy because we do not have a recognized specialty. In 2017 when CMS was still providing very detailed performance reports (which...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 1, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
Cost Measures in the Quality Payment Program (QPP) As I have discussed before, CMS thinks that I practice family medicine. Since nearly half the patients with chronic non-healing wounds have heart failure, CMS thinks that I am their primary care doctor (PCP) because I...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 26, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Quality Payment Program
The data submission period for Medicare’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) 2023 performance year is underway, and closes April 1 at 7 pm CT. At stake is a pay cut of up to 9% in the 2025 payment year. MIPS-eligible physicians and health professionals must...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 25, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
On Tuesday, January 30th at 12:00 pm ET, the Amputation Prevention Alliance will host a webinar, Preventing Diabetes-Related Amputations: Missed Opportunities in the Patient Care Journey. The Webinar is being released in conjunction with the American Diabetes...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 25, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
There’s no way to hide the awful fact that I will be 65 in March. I might as well admit it here since apparently, every insurance company and retailer know it – based on the quantity of junk mail that fills my mailbox with “CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR 65TH BIRTHDAY!”...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 24, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
Recently, I was a guest on the MicroGenDx Mic’d Up podcast, hosted by Rick Martin, CEO of MicroGenDX. We chatted about cases in which MicroGenDx had made a difference in the management of some chronic wound patients – as well as some cases in which the results told me...
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...
