by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 1, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
I am going to describe the process by which CMS calculates Quality and Resource Use and then show you data from my own Quality and Resource Use Report (QRUR). Warning: there is math involved, and there is no possible way to make this topic interesting. However, it is...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 13, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
I am explaining MIPS, the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. Although MIPS does not begin until 2017, 85% of the MIPS score is derived from performance in the 2 quality programs that clinicians should already be engaged in: Meaningful Use of an EHR (MU) and the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 9, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
As shared by Renee Duncan of UHMS, “Pressure” the official newsletter of UHMS Membership is now open access (now listed under ‘Publications’ on the home page). This means you can invite your colleagues who may be considering membership in the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 5, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
I’m picking up where I’d left off before SAWC Spring – explaining MIPS, the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. Although MIPS does not begin until 2017, 85% of the MIPS score is derived from performance in the 2 quality programs that clinicians...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 2, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
There’s a new article out published open source (you can download it free) about the “DIME” approach to wound management (Debridement/devitalized tissue, Infection or inflammation, Moisture balance, and wound Edge preparation/wound depth) in relation...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 20, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Like many hyperbaric medicine doctors, I got into the field through my love of diving. Many years ago I was lecturing at one of the beautiful diving medicine courses offered by Paul Sheffield (ATMO) and the late Helen Davis. The main attraction at the meeting was the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 11, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Last week I attended the National Quality Forum (NQF) meeting in Washington, D.C. — Re-engineering Quality Data for Value. Due to the high prevalence rate of multiple co-morbidities among patients, there was much discussion about how to properly risk stratify...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 24, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Each performance year, CMS sets a “performance threshold” (PT) which is the number of points at which a provider receives 0% adjustment to their Medicare Part B payments. If, just for the sake of illustration, the PT threshold is 50 points, then a provider earning 50...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 17, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
For over a decade we had an annual crisis of uncertainty regarding Medicare physician payments. Under the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, physician reimbursement needed to be cut by at least 21% to keep the Medicare program from going under financially....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 3, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Two months ago (Jan 2016), Diabetes Care published an article by Fedorko and colleagues entitled, “Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Does Not Reduce Indications for Amputation in Patients With Diabetes With Non healing Ulcers of the Lower Limb: A Prospective, Double-Blind,...
