As 2026 begins, Kathleen Schaum opens Episode 17 of Reimbursement Readiness: Business Tips for Wound Practice with a candid assessment of the turbulence wound care teams endured in 2025—particularly around cellular and tissue-based products (CTPs). While the 2026 Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Final Rule brought meaningful improvements for hospital-owned outpatient provider-based departments (PBDs), Kathleen is still fielding urgent calls from departments that have not yet aligned their systems to capture those payments correctly.

In this episode, Kathleen walks PBD leaders step-by-step through the critical operational refinements required to receive appropriate CTP reimbursement in 2026. She explains how unpackaged payment affects application codes, why charges must be adjusted, which legacy codes must be removed, and how flat-rate CTP product payment changes purchasing strategy. Kathleen also highlights the importance of updating formularies, charge description masters, EHR workflows, coding tools, and billing systems—emphasizing that improved reimbursement will not “happen by magic” without deliberate action.

This episode serves as a practical readiness checklist for PBDs using CTPs today. If physicians or qualified healthcare professionals are applying CTPs in your department, this conversation helps you confirm what’s complete, identify what’s missing, and act quickly to avoid lost revenue in 2026.

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