by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 6, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Lately we’ve noticed that for patients seen in our wound center, Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) has been denying reimbursement for Evaluation and Management (E&M) services if they are billed on the same day as a procedure, despite the use of a modifier 25 to...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 1, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Quality Payment Program
Yesterday a friend who practices hyperbaric medicine called me about a reimbursement question because she had just read the Novitas LCD on the subject. I told her that the Novitas LCD was the least of our problems. HBOT utilization is down 50% across the USA. Listed...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 23, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers
CMS is soliciting public comments on its “Hospital Harms” Quality measures which include hypoglycemia, acute kidney injury, opioid related adverse events, and – Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injury. The call for public comment closes on March 02, 2018. CMS has contracted...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 19, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Quality Payment Program
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine has published an update on the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Registry – “Driving Quality and Demonstrating Compliance.” The HBOTR is one of the specialty registries sponsored by the US Wound Registry (USWR). The HBOTR could be used...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 14, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
Happy Valentine’s Day to my patients and my amazing nurses. Watch the incredible video of this wound dripping lymphatic fluid: [vimeo 255462091 w=800 h=1422] This movie is of a man in his 70’s who has had prostate cancer with radiation to the pelvis and a DVT in that...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 12, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Big news is that California’s insurance commissioner has launched an investigation into Aetna after one of its former medical directors admitted under oath that all the decisions about whether to approve or deny care were made by nurse case managers and he never...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 6, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
The math for hyperbaric oxygen can be confusing. I wrote an article for Today’s Wound Clinic about the ethics of off-label hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I said I’d provide the math here. The earth’s atmosphere weighs down on us with a specific amount of pressure. If you...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 6, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
It’s official that we are in a flu epidemic. There are many reasons but one unique and worrying feature of this season is the fact that the ‘young invincibles’ are dying. Two things to remember are: people who have gotten the flu vaccine are less likely to die even if...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 30, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Our last guest post by the esteemed Dr. Helen Gelly, CEO of HyperbaRXS in Atlanta, GA, was so popular that I just had to have her back in this space! As always, her insights are both incisive and much-needed. Enjoy! –CF It has been said that “you can’t manage...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 23, 2018 | Don't Miss This, Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing
Forget about the flu epidemic. At least it’s pretty easy to figure out when a patient has the flu. I feel sure I have missed some patients with wounds due to low Vitamin D. The Vitamin-D deficiency epidemic is ridiculous. What scares me is not that 80% of the tests I...
