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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

UnitedHealthcare Retires Fax Numbers Used for Prior Authorization Requests

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Unfortunately, prior authorization continues to be a burden for providers, practices, and patients. Effective Jan. 1, 2019, UnitedHealthcare (UHC) will retire fax numbers used for medical prior authorization (PA) requests. After this date, UHC will require PA requests to be submitted through their Prior Authorization and Notification tool. Providers who can’t submit requests electronically may…

Q&A with New ACR President Paula Marchetta

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Paula Marchetta, MD, MA, MBA, became a member of the ACR in 1989, during her rheumatology fellowship at Bellevue Hospital and the New York University (NYU) Medical Center. Just 10 years earlier, rheumatology had been an unlikely path. Dr. Marchetta—with a love of the arts—was pursuing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English. But she found…

New ARHP President Hazel L. Breland, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, Will Focus on Interprofessional Collaboration

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This week, Hazel L. Breland, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, stepped into her new role as the 50th ARHP president. Dr. Breland is an associate professor of occupational therapy (OT) at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston where she teaches masters students, serves as academic fieldwork coordinator for clinical placements of all entry-level graduate OT…

ACR Leaders Outline Advocacy Victories, Threats

Thomas R. Collins  |  

CHICAGO—ACR leaders described a series of looming legislative and regulatory threats to rheumatologists and their patients—including the proposed collapsing of evaluation and management (E/M) coding and potential changes to step therapy rules—and urged everyone in the field to make their voices heard to quash the proposals. They also recounted recent victories in the policy realm…

FDA Rejects Novartis Bid to Repurpose Inflammation Drug for Heart Attacks

John Miller  |  

ZURICH (Reuters)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected Novartis’s bid to repurpose a drug now approved for rare inflammatory diseases to be used in a group of heart attack survivors, according to the Swiss drugmaker. The company received an FDA letter turning down its bid to make canakinumab a targeted therapy for those…

ARHP Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Christina H. Opava, PhD, RPT

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CHICAGO—Christina H. Opava, PhD, RPT, is the recipient of the 2018 ARHP Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented (along with the other ACR and ARHP awards) during the opening session of the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting on Oct. 20. “Receiving this award is an immense honor,” she tells The Rheumatologist. “My first thought was that…

McConnell Says Senate Republicans Might Revisit Obamacare Repeal

David Morgan  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Republicans could try again to repeal Obamacare if they win enough seats in U.S. elections next month, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday, calling a failed 2017 push to repeal the healthcare law a “disappointment.” In a forecast of 2019 policy goals tempered by uncertainty about who will win the congressional elections,…