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

Practice Support

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UnitedHealth Group to Require MRI Accreditation

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Starting March 1, 2008, UnitedHealth Group will require all freestanding facilities and physician offices that perform MRIs and certain other imaging studies to obtain accreditation. Physicians without accreditation will not be reimbursed for the technical or global codes. UnitedHealth Group is the umbrella organization for insurance companies such as United Healthcare, Ovations, and AmeriChoice.

A Day in the Life of Michael J. Maricic, MD

Eric Butterman  |  

For Michael J. Maricic, MD, the heat is always on—and not just from the scalding temperatures of the ever-present Tucson sun. Strolling through the lobby of his bone clinic, the same sign awaits him every morning: “Our mission is to provide state-of-the-art diagnosis and therapy of rheumatic disorders, combined with compassionate care.” Compassion is a primary adjective in that sentence and in his mind, and Dr. Maricic hopes this commitment will make him and his partners a top practice in a very busy market. After all, Arizona is a place where people retire—often taking their rheumatism with them.

State and Local Society Coding Presentations

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The ACR Practice Advocacy Department will give programs to assist physicians with coding and reimbursement again this year. Last year, ACR coders spoke at more than 15 state and local societies.

Join an ACR/ARHP List Serve Community

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Have you ever wanted peer input on a rheumatology-related problem? Thanks to the ACR and ARHP list serves, help is only an e-mail away. The list serves give you unlimited access to rheumatologists or health professional experts. The ACR offers list serves on coding and practice management, advocacy, and five for specific U.S. regions, while the ARHP offers clinical, pediatric, rehabilitation, and research lists. Members can join as many lists as they like.

Since their launch, these list serves have helped ACR members share information and advice on reimbursement challenges and successes, practice tools, research methods, physical therapists in a pediatric hospital setting, and many more topics.

You can choose to receive list updates as they are posted or as one digest message at the end of the day.

For questions on joining, changing your settings, or posting messages, contact Regina Adair at (404) 633-3777, ext. 817 or [email protected] (for ACR lists), or Julie Anderson at ext. 802 or [email protected] (for ARHP lists).

Prior Authorization Struggle Continues

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Many Medicare Part D plans continue to request prior authorizations for several drugs commonly prescribed by rheumatologists. The ACR has been working diligently with Robert Bennett of the Physician Regulatory Issues Team (PRIT) to avoid the same problems many physicians had last year. PRIT advises all physicians to write “for Part D” along with the diagnosis on the prescription, to verify that the drugs are for Part D diagnoses and should not be paid under Part B. This way the administrators of the prescription drug plans (PDPs) can waive the need for a new prior authorization—saving time and money for physicians, pharmacists, and the PDPs.