by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 6, 2025 | Fight the Good Fight
Congress left for the holidays without addressing the 2.83% pay cut for doctors. The American Medical Association (AMA) and many other physician organizations have lobbied for a permanent, inflation-based payment update as recommended by the Medicare Payment Advisory...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 23, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Nutrition & Wound Healing
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) just released a report on Medicaid spending for 10 selected diabetes and 2 weight loss drugs which showed that spending substantially increased from $1.5 billion in 2019 to $9.4 billion in 2023 (a 540% increase). From 2019 to...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 17, 2024 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality, Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy, US Wound Registry
It’s almost time! Join us today for our exclusive webinar, “Quality Measures: Why they don’t mean anything, but maybe everything.” Dec 17 | 4 PM EST Click Here to Register Caroline Fife, M.D.Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 9, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Medicare Audits
Attorney Knicole Emanuel has published another fascinating blog! Check out her discussion about the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) and the False Claims Act (FCA). Many practitioners are undergoing the full alphabet soup of Medicare audits (TPE, UPIC, SMERC, RAC,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 6, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
I saw this patient almost 5 years ago, but her case is one of those that I can’t get out of my mind. I now understand what I was looking at, but I didn’t understand it at the time. The woman was in her late 60’s and an orthopedic surgeon sent her to me because she...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 4, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
This posting has been removed from a job website since I took these images. I have redacted the name and location of the company that posted the job. The posting was for a nurse practitioner with “wound experience highly preferred (but not required)” — although...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 20, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
A patient sent me a photo of this Explanation of Benefit (EOB) from their secondary insurance company, referring to a claim from a hospital based wound center (HOPD). It shows that the hospital charged $11,060.00 for a wound debridement in the HOPD. Medicare’s...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 18, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
Attorney Knicole Emanuel recently blogged about Medicare audits. It’s a good news/bad news story. The good news is that a physician who was determined by an auditor to have been “over paid” by $5 million ended up owing NOTHING. The bad news is that the cost of taking...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 15, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight
I blog so much about the importance of checking and supplementing wound care patients with Vitamin D, that’s it’s probably getting old. However, I just can’t help myself. This is one of the few problems that is simple and cheap to fix. In addition to the fact that low...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 13, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Nutrition & Wound Healing
I have no affiliation with any pharmaceutical company, and I continue to be cautious about the Glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) craze. However, I am paying attention to this family of drugs because for more than three decades I have watched with a...
