The ACR and the ARHP have a long, rich history of collaboration, spanning close to 25 years together. Our predecessors saw the value of an interprofessional team and having an organization that brings together a vast number of constituencies. The result was these two organizations coming together in 1994 when the ARHP became a division…
Picture this: It’s 3 o’clock in the morning. You can’t sleep. You settle in front of the television to watch a rerun of Dirty Dancing. And then it hits you: Ask your doctor. Even as your eyelids sag, some part of your primitive forebrain snaps to attention. Medical training has turned us all into multitaskers,…
RheumPAC is the ACR/ARHP’s nonpartisan political action committee (PAC) that works to elect and support pro-rheumatology candidates. It is the only PAC dedicated to the interests of the rheumatology profession. RheumPAC was created 10 years ago with the mission of electing and supporting federal lawmakers who understand and are in a position to support the…
The CMS has implemented a few changes to its 2018 MIPS submission categories. Not only will it be adding a cost category, but it has recently announced the renaming of the Advancing Care Information (ACI) category to Promoting Interoperability (PI) to focus on interoperability, improving flexibility and relieving administrative burdens. The CMS confirmed this will…
The American Medical Association’s (AMA) RVS Update Committee (RUC) and the Current Procedural Terminology Committee (CPT) meet six times per year to review resource costs and code descriptors for provider services. At these meetings, the ACR is represented by several volunteers and staff to provide a voice in shaping Medicare policy for rheumatology. The first…
Rapid, accurate and convenient point-of-care lab testing for patients is one of the promises of 21st century medicine. However, reimbursement cuts enacted through the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) threaten access to this testing, explains Colin Edgerton, MD, FACP, RhMSUS, partner in Articularis Healthcare and chair of the ACR’s Committee on Rheumatologic…
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the most used drugs for acute and chronic pain. More than 30 billion doses of NSAIDs are consumed annually from more than 70 million prescriptions.1 Despite their common use, NSAIDs are not free of serious toxicities. In the pre-Vioxx (rofecoxib) era, gastrointestinal toxicity was the primary concern for many NSAIDs….
Recent research found 41% of pediatric patients with SLE are affected by at least mild disability, with higher pain scores correlating with increased disability. Mary Beth Son, MD, says determining how these children feel and what affects them daily is vital to “identifying targets we can hit as clinicians to improve their quality of life.”
In the past nine years, visits to the emergency department by gout patients have increased by almost 27%. Researchers suggest physicians may not adequately be addressing the burden of gout and the underlying accumulation of uric acid, driving the dramatic increase in emergency department visits in the U.S…
In a long-term extension study, belimumab proved safe, demonstrating low organ damage accrual in SLE patients treated for up to nine years…