Video: Who Am I?| Webinar: ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice

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

Practice Support

Subcategories:EMRsFacilityInsuranceQuality Assurance/ImprovementTechnology

Managing Patient Records

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Physician practices handle patient records that contain sensitive information—including financial, demographic, and medical data—on a day-to-day basis. This type of information can put a practice, as well as the patient, at risk if not handled properly. Rheumatology practices should make sure that they have policies and procedures in place for keeping and distributing patient records. In fact, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has set a national standard for the privacy of health information.

Are You a Meaningful User?

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As a follow-up to last month’s article (August 2010) about the final rule for the electronic health record (EHR) stimulus program—which offers up to $64,000 to eligible providers who are meaningful users of an EHR system—this month we will explore the minimum requirements for successful meaningful use, which take effect in 2011 and will build gradually each year of the program.

Coding Education at the Annual Meeting

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The Certified Rheumatology Coding Course and Exam will be available November 6–7 during the ACR/ ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta. This educational session is designed to increase knowledge of coding and billing compliance for physicians, fellows-in-training, practice managers, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and coders/billers in rheumatology practices.

Your Coders Are as Good as Their Coding Tools

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Are your coders equipped with the latest coding information? Every year there are changes to the diagnoses and procedure codes, whether this is deletion or newly created codes. Along with coding updates, insurance carriers frequently adjust, delete, or create medical policies to reflect updates to procedures or diagnose codes.

Social Media 101 for Rheumatologists & Health Professionals

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Ask any social media enthusiast to describe the value of social networking, and you will undoubtedly receive some variation of the following: Social media allows me to easily follow the latest news, converse with others about shared interests, and grow a virtual and face-to-face network. The most important thing for new users of social media to understand is that all forms of social networking—from Twitter to Facebook to YouTube—are only as valuable as the members of your social network. In other words, if you do not share common interests with the members of your online community, social networking will quickly become irrelevant and of little value. It’s about the relationships, not necessarily the technology.