by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 1, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
I am going to describe the process by which CMS calculates Quality and Resource Use and then show you data from my own Quality and Resource Use Report (QRUR). Warning: there is math involved, and there is no possible way to make this topic interesting. However, it is...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 5, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
I’m picking up where I’d left off before SAWC Spring – explaining MIPS, the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. Although MIPS does not begin until 2017, 85% of the MIPS score is derived from performance in the 2 quality programs that clinicians...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Feb 17, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
We have less than two weeks in the deadline for Registry Reporting deadlines for 2016 Meaningful Use Stage 2 Objective 10 (February 29, 2016). But let’s not forget the preparation required in order to successfully pass Quality Reporting for PQRS. Below is a...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 22, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, Quality Payment Program, US Wound Registry
Selecting Measures Beginning in 2015, measure selection took on a whole new meaning. No longer was it “ok” to simply pick a few measures that your EHR could easily capture the data and send the results off to CMS. Where once you were paid for reporting, P4R, now with...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 3, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Please remember to check out my November/December 2015 editorial in Today’s Wound Clinic. I reviewed the sad history of the two years I spent as President of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society from 1998 to 2000, during which CMS attempted to reduce facility...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 29, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
Earlier this month, I showed you some photos of a malnourished patient who I think has improved because of Argenaid. While there may be some things in the past that I miss, I confess that in the past I did not pay sufficient attention to nutritional issues. I’m...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 26, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Miscellaneous Musings, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
On September 28, 2015, CMS made available the 2014 Supplemental Quality and Resource Use Reports (QRURs) to every medical group practice and solo practitioner nationwide. Providers are identified in the Supplemental QRURs by their Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 23, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
It’s not IF but WHEN you get the notice of a payer audit. One day you will open your mail and receive the Notice of Audit. It’s no longer IF, but WHEN. What are you doing RIGHT NOW to ensure you will be successful when your time comes? Preparation is the key. ...
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...
