Video: Every Case Tells a Story| Webinar: ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice

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

Medicare Rule May Needlessly Extend Some Hospital Stays

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—A decades old Medicare rule requiring a three-day hospital stay before patients can transfer to skilled nursing facilities may needlessly prolong hospitalizations, a study suggests. Researchers compared the average time patients were hospitalized between 2006 and 2010 in privately administered Medicare Advantage health plans that either stuck to this rule or allowed people to…

37,000 U.S. Infection-Related Deaths Preventable Over 5 Years

Ransdell Pierson  |  

(Reuters)—Closer coordination between healthcare facilities and public health departments could save 37,000 U.S. lives over five years by preventing infections from antibiotic-resistant germs and from Clostridium difficile, according to a government report released on Tuesday. Germs that no longer respond to antibiotics cause more than 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths each year in the…

New Analysis Underscores Improving Pharma R&D Productivity

Ben Hirschler  |  

LONDON (Reuters)—Drug industry productivity is continuing to improve, with a bumper haul of new products being launched and companies proving more successful in the final stages of clinical testing, according to a new analysis. Data from Thomson Reuters published on Tuesday showed the number of innovative medicines, or new molecular entities, launched globally in 2014…

China to Expand Medical Insurance for Major Illnesses

Reuters Staff  |  

BEIJING (Reuters)—China will expand medical insurance to cover all critical illnesses for all urban and rural residents by the end of the year, the cabinet said on Sunday, the latest step in a plan to fix a healthcare system that has sparked public discontent. The State Council said 50% of the medical costs will be…

Infection & Hospitalization in SLE

Arthritis Care & Research  |  

From 1996–2011, the rates of hospitalization due to serious infectious diseases in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) increased substantially, according to new research. In a retrospective data-driven study, researchers plotted and compared hospitalization and in-hospital mortality rates of SLE and non-SLE populations, determining the trends for the five most common infections…

CareFirst Sees More Than Doubled Savings on Shared Rewards with Doctors

Susan Kelly  |  

(Reuters)—Insurer CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield said on Thursday its cost savings on providing healthcare rose sharply last year in a program that rewards doctors for keeping patients out of the hospital. The non-profit health insurer operates an approach to delivering care that emphasizes coordination among providers, led by a patient’s primary care physician. The model is…

Skin Complications of Anti-TNF Therapy Common in IBD

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Dermatologic complications hit about one in five patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy, leading to discontinuation of treatment, a French study finds. Dr. Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet, from University Hospital of Nancy, and colleagues note that dermatological complications of anti-TNF therapy are known to occur frequently in IBD…