by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 12, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
Excerpted from Today’s Wound Clinic The hospital supply contracting process is complicated and slow. Physicians, however, can make purchasing decisions quickly and directly. Manufacturers need to get prepared for a dramatic shift to less-expensive wound...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 11, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
I changed my specialty code to Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine a few months ago. It was necessary because since I am Family Practice Board Certified, the data on Medicare spending for my patients was being compared to that of FP’s across the country. However, I...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 7, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
Even though I was a child, I remember the space race of the 1960’s. That’s because my Dad was at the School of Aerospace Medicine, where human physiology research was being conducted at a breakneck pace. To handle the problem that ink pens didn’t work...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 4, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
The reclassification of all services in the Hospital Based Outpatient Department (HOPD) to “general supervision” away from “direct supervision” has the potential to create chaos. While general supervision may be acceptable for some services (e.g. NPWT dressing changes...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 28, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
I’ve talked to a lot of you lately and to save time, I have decided to write an open letter to manufacturers in the wound care space. This advice is free – which means no one will value it, but here is what I wish you were paying attention to: Medicare (at least)...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 27, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
In October 2019, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that waste accounts for roughly one-quarter of all U.S. healthcare spending. A conservative estimate of the cost of waste is over $900 billion annually. Former CMS...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 23, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
The PA project accomplished its objective. HBOT utilization is now at a 10-year low, although that’s not entirely due to the completed prior authorization project. It is unfortunate CMS did not report how much the project cost to implement. We know it’s pointless to...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 22, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
Today we’re re-visiting last year’s post about Changing Your Physician Specialty Code. It’s a relatively fast and simple process – but for Wound Care Practitioners, it’s an important step. Changing your designation to D4 will decrease the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 20, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
I’m re-posting these helpful instructions for finding your HCC score from a previous guest post by Dr. Helen Gelly. The importance of your HCC score cannot be overstated! To find out your HCC score for 2017 and the years prior, follow these easy steps: Step...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 16, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
My friend from England has an expression she learned from her Mother, an ambulance driver during the London Blitz: “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” The field of wound management is in for a lot of big changes in 2020. As with anything...
