by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 22, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Today I saw a patient who would have benefitted incredibly from ultrasonic debridement. She has cutaneous calcinosis, terrible pain and her wounds are horribly colonized with nasty drainage like a lava flow. Last year I had an ultrasonic debriding machine on loan for...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 20, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
How can we get out of this silly problem of trials that don’t enroll our patients to get coverage for patients who really don’t need the product anyway? We need a way to risk stratify wounds that includes patient factors. Thanks to partial funding from a grant by KCI...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 15, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Today I got an in-service on a new product and my Program Director informed me that since we were moving to a new system for ordering supplies and charging them, it was about to become darn near impossible to get new products. I remember back in the early 1990’s I...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 12, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
At the recent fall Symposium on the Advancement of Wound Care (SAWC), I had the honor of speaking at the opening session entitled, “The Power of Numbers, Predictive Outcomes in Diverse Populations” with 2 eminent statisticians, Charles Cowan and Nigam Shah. It sounds...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 28, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
ICD-10 is almost here. In a previous blog I discussed the unique thought logic that would be required to correctly code “late effects of radiation” in ICD-10. Now I am just going to say it—best of luck to those of you who do not have Intellicure. Intellicure is using...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 24, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
I remember about 20 years ago a coder came to talk to me about my wound care documentation. I can’t remember if she was sent from the University or the hospital. I was a relatively young faculty member and the wound center I started at UT Houston had not been open for...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 21, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has implemented a prior authorization model for non-emergent hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Illinois, Michigan, and New Jersey. It is the position of CMS that it can reduce spending on HBOT services while...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 17, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
This month I am reminding you about some educational materials to mitigate litigation risk available in a new book by my friend Kevin Yankowsky. Check out a presentation Kevin and I did at Medline’s “Prevention Above All” conference a few years ago entitled,...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 14, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, Quality Payment Program, US Wound Registry
Are you thinking that PQRS is only for practitioners? More and more hospitals are on the hook to get PQRS right. This year, the Physician Quality Reporting System payment “adjustments” officially move from the incentive to the penalty phase. I’ve talked a lot about...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 10, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Last week I told you about the new book on preventive legal care by my friend Kevin Yankowsky who often speaks at national wound care meetings. You would have to pay to see him at the SAWC, but you can access a video training workshop for free. Topics include: The...
