by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 30, 2019 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Quality Payment Program, US Wound Registry
Do you still have the photos of the first patient you treated with the VAC? Here are the 1997 photos of my first VAC patient, only 2 years after the device was cleared by the FDA. I know the photo quality is terrible – they were originally Polaroids! My point is that...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 29, 2019 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
A recent column in Med Page Today by David Nash draws attention to the quality measure development process as well as its funding model by CMS. My comment in response was not published in Med Page (shocking!), so I thought I’d post it here: “Thank you for...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 27, 2019 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
A recent column in Med Page Today by David Nash draws attention to the frustrating issue of the quality measure development process (as well as its funding model). If any wound care practitioner has looked at their Quality and Resource Use Report (QRUR), you might...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 4, 2019 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
In 2013 we were winding down the analysis needed to create the Wound Healing Index (WHI), a mathematical model to stratify wounds by their likelihood of healing. The goal was to enable the reporting of honest healing rates. Susan Horn and I have published a lot about...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 18, 2019 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Quality Payment Program
We have a serious problem with mistaken identity as wound care practitioners, and I don’t know what we are doing to do about it. I’ve told you that Medicare is holding me accountable for all the wound center patients with CHF and diabetes that get re-hospitalized each...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 15, 2019 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Since clinicians were first offered a financial incentive to purchase and use an electronic health record (EHR) to obtain bonus money (or avoid penalties), they have been required to use only “certified EHR technology” (CEHRT). The names of the various payment...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 20, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
In 2017, many wound care practitioners failed MIPS Quality Measures because the EHRs they paid good money for didn’t do their freaking job. In 2017, the US Wound Registry (USWR) reported Merit Based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS) data on behalf of wound care...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 17, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
The 2018 Quality Payment Program Exception Application period ends on December 31, 2018 If you are a practitioner who is subject to the Merit Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), for the 2018 reporting year, there are two types of exceptions for which you might be...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 10, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Last week CMS rejected a quality measure developed by the US Wound Registry (USWR) which was the Appropriate Use of Surgical Dressings from a DME for patients with wounds. That quality measure was designed to drive the electronic ordering of wound dressings for home...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 26, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Since I’ve been left to figure out this quality thing for wound care pretty much on my own, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. One of my goals (but not the only one) is to develop quality measures to help practitioners and patients survive the increasing pressure of...
