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

Immunoassay May Help Identify Pediatric Lyme Arthritis

Marilynn Larkin  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—In Lyme disease-endemic areas, a C6 peptide enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test may help guide initial management of children with acute arthritis, an observational study suggests.1 “Children with Lyme disease frequently present to the emergency department with an inflamed joint,” Lise Nigrovic, MD, MPH, of Boston Children’s Hospital tells Reuters Health by email….

U.S. Accuses CVS of Defrauding Medicare over Prescriptions

Jonathan Stempel  |  

NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters)—CVS Health Corp. and its Omnicare unit were sued on Tuesday by the U.S. government, which accused them of fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of drugs without valid prescriptions. The U.S. Department of Justice joined two whistleblower lawsuits accusing Omnicare of failing to obtain new prescriptions from…

Declining Numbers of Americans Have a Primary Care Provider

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(Reuters Health)—In a little over a decade, the number of patients in the U.S. with primary care providers dropped by 2%, a new study finds. Between 2002 and 2015, fewer and fewer Americans of all ages, except for those in their 80s, had a primary care provider, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine.1 Although 2%…

Male Researchers Call Their Work ‘Novel’ More Often Than Women

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—Male scientists are more likely than their female counterparts to use superlatives, such as first or novel, to describe their work, a new study suggests, and this disparity might contribute to other professional gender gaps, the authors say. The study team analyzed the language used in more than 6 million papers in peer-reviewed medical…

Coding Corner Questions: Rheumatology Word Search

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Questions What type of drug is interchangeable with an FDA-approved biologic? What drug is used in conjunction with infliximab, unless the patient cannot tolerate it? What can be used as a key element in an evaluation and management (E/M) service, along with the history, exam and medical decision making? What drives the level of an…

Achieving Clinical Documentation Improvement in 2020

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Although the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is simplifying documentation through its Patients over Paperwork initiative, clinical documentation improvement (CDI) did not go away. CDI is not about how to code in ICD-10-CM or the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT); instead, it is a huge part of the solution in maximizing the integrity of…

Help Rheumatology Research Foundation Hit Its Year-End Goal: $100,000

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The Rheumatology Research Foundation is the charitable arm of the ACR, advancing research and training to improve the health of people living with rheumatic disease. Thanks to the continued support of ACR and ARP members, the Foundation is the largest private funding source for rheumatology research and training programs in the U.S. In all, the…

Rheum After 5: Dr. Stacy Ardoin & Mr. Mom

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In 2004, Stacy Ardoin, MD, MHS, became pregnant with twins during the second year of her fellowship at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C. Although she and her husband, Adrien, were thrilled by the news, the astronomical cost of day care for two infants was a specter. At the time, Adrien managed a book­store…