by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 5, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
QualityLast month, I attended the annual National Quality Forum Conference in Washington, DC. This year’s theme was: Fulfilling The Quality Mandate – Are We Closer To Safer, More Effective, and Affordable Care? A major theme was that of racial disparities in care. I...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 28, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
In February 2018, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report entitled “WISCONSIN PHYSICIANS SERVICE PAID PROVIDERS FOR HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY SERVICES THAT DID NOT COMPLY WITH MEDICARE REQUIREMENTS.” The OIG evaluated the region under the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 27, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
There’s a scene in “Men in Black” where Jay panics about a looming crisis, but Kay tells him that there’s always an intergalactic plague threatening to destroy the earth, and that the only way people get on with life is if they don’t know about it. Truthfully, the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 22, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
About 13 years ago, one of my children developed a serious medical illness and I took several months off to be a full time caregiver. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go back to practicing medicine. I was pretty depressed about the whole situation when I decided to try...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 14, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since I was president of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). I thought my biggest challenge would be trying develop an approach to off-label use of HBOT. As it turned out, only weeks after I took office,...
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...
