by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 20, 2026 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Quality Payment Program
Last week I got a call from a hospital that employs two practitioners in their Hospital Based Outpatient Wound Center (HOPD). The clinic manager and the hospital quality officer said that they have employed these practitioners for years, and that, “We just heard about...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 2, 2026 | Fight the Good Fight, Quality Payment Program
The problem with boring documents is that they might be vital to your survival – like drug package inserts or the fine print of legal contracts. The situation is made more frustrating because special knowledge is required to understand the fine print and avoid...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 27, 2026 | Field Test Report, Quality Payment Program
Official CMS press release: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its contractor, Acumen, LLC, will conduct field testing from January 29 to February 27, 2026, for three episode-based cost measures. The measures will undergo field testing before...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 26, 2026 | Field Test Report, Healthcare Payment Policy, Quality Payment Program
This is an official CMS release: Upcoming Specialty Society Office Hours We are holding office hours with specialty societies and organizations to provide information about the upcoming field testing period. These office hours are intended as an informal opportunity...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 4, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Quality Payment Program
The AMA has a series called “What’s Wrong with Medicare Physician Payment,” and 4 of the 6 points in this article address the weaknesses of the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Three of those focus around issues related to the Merit Based Incentive Payment System...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 7, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Quality Payment Program
I know there is “MIPS” fatigue and that for most wound care practitioners, the whole Quality Payment Program has felt irrelevant. However, this year, if you are “eligible” to report (that’s Medicare’s term for “you have to do it”) and fail to do anything about it, you...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 26, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Quality Payment Program
The data submission period for Medicare’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) 2023 performance year is underway, and closes April 1 at 7 pm CT. At stake is a pay cut of up to 9% in the 2025 payment year. MIPS-eligible physicians and health professionals must...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 11, 2024 | Fight the Good Fight, Quality Payment Program
The list of all CMS-approved Qualified Clinical Data Registries (QCDRs) has been posted. These QCDRs have been approved by CMS to participate in reporting QCDR measures and/or MIPS (Merit Based Incentive Payment System) quality measures, PI (Promoting...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 2, 2023 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Quality Payment Program
I suspect that most of the people reading this have at some point in their lives, quietly accomplished something that they know to be important but which will largely go unnoticed. Sometimes we do things just because we have to be at peace with the person who looks...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 10, 2020 | Healthcare Payment Policy, Quality Payment Program
Here are links to information regarding the Physicians Fee Schedule final rule: Final Rule Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule fact sheet Quality Payment Program Final Rule fact sheet and FAQs Here are the Physician Fee Schedule files:...
