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

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2018 MIPS Reporting via RISE: Are You Ready?

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It’s time to prepare for 2018 MIPS reporting via the Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) registry, and the ACR is here to help. To ensure you’re ready to submit your data to the CMS, RISE users should take the following steps: Complete the survey to notify the ACR of your intent to report via…

Protect Your Practice: Action Update From the ACR’s Insurance Subcommittee

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Both private and academic rheumatology practices face payer challenges that put the health of their patients and their practices at risk. To make sure the rheumatologist perspective is heard by payers, “the ACR’s Insurance Subcommittee (ISC) serves as the interface between payers and our members and ACR colleagues,” explains Sean Fahey, MD, a rheumatologist in…

How to Engage Young Adult Patients

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Gaps in healthcare are common between the ages of 17 and 21. But simple collaborations between adult and pediatric rheumatologists can go a long way to help young adults stay engaged in their rheumatology care…

UnitedHealthcare Retires Fax Numbers Used for Prior Authorization Requests

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Unfortunately, prior authorization continues to be a burden for providers, practices, and patients. Effective Jan. 1, 2019, UnitedHealthcare (UHC) will retire fax numbers used for medical prior authorization (PA) requests. After this date, UHC will require PA requests to be submitted through their Prior Authorization and Notification tool. Providers who can’t submit requests electronically may…

8 Ways to Help Your Patients with Medication Costs

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A patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) comes to your office and needs a medication. You prescribe it, and the patient’s insurance plan covers it. The patient begins the medication and slowly but surely feels better. Prescribing drugs for a patient should be this simple but rarely is, thanks to the high cost of drugs and…

Improve Your Claim Submissions Process

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Maintaining a health revenue cycle in a medical practice comes with myriad moving parts. Numerous external forces, such as economic conditions, government programs (e.g., the Zone Program Integrity Contractor [ZPIC], the Health Information Technology for Economic Clinical Health [HITECH]) and legislation passed under healthcare reform, mandate healthcare organizations to begin managing internal processes, such as…

Big Data May Shift Reference Ranges for Some Lab Tests

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How will big data mined from huge sample sizes in research cohorts, electronic health records, personal health data (e.g., heart rates from Fitbits) and insurance claim data sets change the way physicians interpret something as simple as complete blood count (CBC) test results for individual patients? According to the authors of a paper in the…

Administrators & Payers Have Hijacked Our Medical Records

Timothy Harrington, MD  |  

I attended medical school in the 1960s, when Dr. Lawrence Weed reinvented the medical record to organize and leverage the physician’s patient evaluation for clarity and quality of care—what he dubbed “the problem-oriented medical record.”1,2 My internal medicine house officer training at Massachusetts General placed a high value on efficient, effective medical records and communication…