by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 18, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
I have been discussing the “2016 Prior Year Benchmarks” report for all the quality measures included in the 2016 Quality and Resource Use Reports (QRUR)....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 12, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
The 2016 “Prior Year Benchmarks” report is out for measures included in the 2016 “Quality and Resource Use Reports” (QRUR). There is HUGE news for wound care and hyperbaric medicine but no one has talked about it yet. THIS IS BIG....
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 9, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Many wound care practitioners may not realize it, but we are currently sitting in the “eye of a healthcare storm” due to the impact of quality payment programs, MACRA, and MIPS. Some of us residing on the Gulf Coast know what it’s like to look up into the quiet...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 8, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
I keep reading articles in which people discuss “quality measures in the outpatient wound center” as if they actually existed. I thought I’d post the quality measures that can currently be reported from an outpatient clinic. Since nearly all of them...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 11, 2016 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Last week I attended the National Quality Forum (NQF) meeting in Washington, D.C. — Re-engineering Quality Data for Value. Due to the high prevalence rate of multiple co-morbidities among patients, there was much discussion about how to properly risk stratify...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 21, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
What you need to know to achieve Success with PQRS While some of the background about PQRS is a review of preview posts, I have included the material so that you have all the basic information in one place and can use this as an easy reference about PQRS. I will do...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 13, 2015 | Quality Payment Program
CMS will be publicly reporting a sub-set of the 2014 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) measures on Physician Compare. Starting October 5, 2015, CMS is has set up a 30-day preview period for select quality measures through the PQRS portal—Provider Quality...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 22, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Yesterday I posted some of the reasons for denial of HBOT under prior authorization. I thought I’d point out something that should be obvious but might not be. It appears that HBOT is being denied for DFUs unless—at a bare minimum: Hemoglobin A1C is being checked and...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 24, 2015 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers, US Wound Registry
In July, CMS announced a proposed new model of funding for home healthcare that will affect the delivery of wound care provided by home nursing. The model, included in the CY 2016 Home Health Prospective Payment System proposed rule, updates payments and requirements...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 14, 2015 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
Every Tuesday this month we’ve been having some straight talk about a US Wound Registry Quality Measure. In the June/July issue of Today’s Wound Clinic (TWC) I present a case history of a 30 year old man who had been treated for a year at another wound center for a...