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

New York City Launches $100 Million Universal Health Insurance Program

Gina Cherelus  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters)—New York City has launched a $100 million health insurance program to cover 600,000 uninsured residents, including those unable to afford coverage and those living in the United States illegally, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday. De Blasio, now in his second term as mayor of the country’s most populous city, has…

Former Insys CEO Pleads Guilty to Opioid Kickback Scheme

Nate Raymond  |  

BOSTON (Reuters)—The former chief executive of Insys Therapeutics Inc pleaded guilty on Wednesday to participating in a nationwide scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid medication and has agreed to become a government witness. Michael Babich, who resigned as the Arizona-based drugmaker’s CEO in 2015, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to…

Intronic Polymorphism Associated with Risk of Neurological Disorders in SLE

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Patients who develop neuropsychiatric symptoms of SLE have a small nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in an intron in a Ca++ ion channel gene that influences some, but not all, events regulated by Ca++. The SNP appears to influence activation induced apoptosis rates and cytokine production, specifically IL-4, in a disease- and genotype-specific manner…

Why I Chose to Be Part of RheumPAC

Padmapriya Sivaraman, MD  |  

As physicians, we play an important role in the well-being of patients and serve as advocates to ensure our patient receives adequate healthcare services. Unfortunately, many of the policy decisions that govern our medical practices are made by bureaucrats with inadequate input from physicians. Certain constraints placed on the way we should practice medicine have…

Gearing Up for State Legislation in 2019: 5 Issues that Need Your Attention

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With a number of new legislators and new governors sworn in this month, 2019 promises to be an exciting year for state-level rheumatology advocacy. “Now is the time to reach out and share our top issues with new legislators in your state,” suggests Joseph Cantrell, ACR senior manager of state affairs. 2019 Priorities ACR Affiliate…

SLE Patients May Not Receive Enough Cardiovascular Disease Assessment & Treatment

Arthritis Care & Research  |  

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is associated with high rates of cardiovascular disease. However, research has shown that aggressive risk assessment with lipid screenings and treatment with statins may be suboptimal for these patients. A new study compared the rates of screening and treatment between SLE patients, diabetes mellitus patients and the general Medicaid population. The results: Despite having an elevated risk of CVD, SLE patients received less lipid testing and fewer statin prescriptions than other patients…