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

Practice Support

Subcategories:EMRsFacilityInsuranceQuality Assurance/ImprovementTechnology

ACR Attends AMA House of Delegates

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On Saturday, June 23, 2007, the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates convened in Chicago; the meeting’s theme was advocacy. The ACR was represented by its delegate Melvin Britton, MD, and alternate delegate Gary Bryant, MD.

Mayo and Grady CONNect

Doyt L. Conn, MD  |  

A journey from physician’s mecca to public hospital

Health Information Explosion

Jennifer Decker Arevalo, MA  |  

Don’t be blown away by online medical information – use it to your advantage

Evidence-Based Practice: Making it a Reality

Karen L. Kerr, MSN, NP, CPNP, APRN-BC  |  

Evidence-based practice has become the standard of care in the 21st century. Evidence-based practice is “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.” It requires the integration of a health professional’s clinical expertise, the best available scientific evidence, and patient values and preferences to guide clinical decisions for individual patients.

Profiling Providers: Is Your Practice Ready?

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Medicare may start profiling physicians as soon as mid 2008. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) develop a profiling system to identify physicians with inefficient practice patterns. At a House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health hearing, Herbert Kuhn, acting deputy administrator of the CMS, said that identifying inefficient physicians, or “profiling,” would involve comparing the number of tests ordered by a physician for certain types of patients with the number ordered by colleagues in cases with the same outcome.

Be Aware of New Waived Tests

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Keeping current on changes to laboratory certifications for common lab tests can save your practice time—and money. Since the passage of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) in 1988, all health-assessment laboratory tests are ranked for complexity, and their complexity dictates which labs can process Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)–reimbursed tests. In accordance with CLIA, each laboratory facility must register with CMS to receive a CLIA certification. There are five certifications, each with differing degrees of complexity, listed from least to most complex: Certificate of Waiver, Certificate of Provider-Performed Microscopy Procedures, Certificate of Registration, Certificate of Compliance, and the Certificate of Accreditation.