by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 10, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
Check out the article in the March issue of Today’s Wound Clinic by Dr. Helen Gelly – Patient Relationship Codes: Why We Need Them and the Unintended Consequences of Using Them. The patient relationship codes are vital to both Wound Management and...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 4, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
I’ve blogged before about the Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) process. I’m under a TPE over the handful of patients I treated with Medicare Fee for Service (FFS). I thought to myself, “OK the TPE process is clearly not triggered by patient volume so maybe it’s just...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 28, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy, US Wound Registry
The Wound Care Evidence Summit will take place in Washington, D.C. April 1-2. If you are involved in this area, you need to register now because spots are limited. The meeting will convene commercial and government payer medical directors, the FDA, NIH senior staff,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 26, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Medicare review contractors (Medicare Administrative Contractors, Recovery Audit Contractors and the Supplemental Medical Review Contractor) develop and maintain lists of reasons for denying payment for Medicare covered services like hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT)....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 26, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
The Wound Care Evidence Summit will take place in Washington, D.C. April 1-2. If you are involved in this area, you need to register now because spots are limited. The meeting will convene commercial and government payer medical directors, the FDA, NIH senior staff,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 25, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy
The Wound Care Evidence Summit will take place in Washington, D.C. April 1-2. If you are involved in this area, you need to register now because spots are limited. The meeting will convene commercial and government payer medical directors, the FDA, NIH senior staff,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 24, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Healthcare Payment Policy, US Wound Registry
There’s a big focus on finding surrogate measures for wound outcome. I thought I could save anyone working in this area some wasted time by letting you know what outcomes CMS doesn’t care about. I can’t speak to what the FDA might care about. Under the Merit Based...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 20, 2020 | Cellular / Tissue-Based Products, Healthcare Payment Policy
I feel like I should start this blog like the beginning of Star Wars, “Long ago, in a galaxy far away…“ Back in 2013, when insurance was less complicated, the US Wound Registry provided data for a medical student project under the supervision of Dr. Adelaide...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 19, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy
To assist the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders in making its comments to CMS about the proposed “episode of care” payment model for Cellular and/or Tissue Based Products (CTPs) – sometimes referred to as “skin substitutes,” the US Wound Registry...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 18, 2020 | Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Healthcare Payment Policy
There is lot of interest in surrogate measures of wound outcome to capture important aspects of treatment beyond closure. Because it provides insight into the patient’s experience, Quality of life (QOL) is an obvious surrogate for healing rate. For your own safety,...
