New legislation has the potential to streamline the audit process for Medicare and Medicaid, taking a burden off small rheumatology practices…
Congress’ District Workweeks in August Prime Time for Rheumatology Advocacy
Each year in August, lawmakers return home for the summer recess and convene district workweeks. That means you have the opportunity to meet with members in their local offices, attend fund-raisers nearby or participate in a town hall. This is where our strength as a membership organization can benefit us most. We have real physicians…
CareFirst Sees More Than Doubled Savings on Shared Rewards with Doctors
(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…
Healthcare Improving for Older Americans
(Reuters Health)—The number of deaths, hospital stays and healthcare costs decreased among older Americans on Medicare over the past 15 years, according to a new study. “Although our health care system has its failings, we are making remarkable progress,” said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, the study’s lead author from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. “People…
Some Public Hospitals Win, Others Lose with Obamacare
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)—A year and a half after the Affordable Care Act brought widespread reforms to the U.S. healthcare system, Chicago’s Cook County Health & Hospitals System has made its first profit in 180 years. Seven hundred miles south, the fortunes of Atlanta’s primary public hospital, Grady Health System, haven’t improved, and it remains as…
Main Fund for U.S. Medicare Program to Run Out of Money in 2030
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—A slowdown in healthcare spending has shored up the funding outlook for the federal program that pays elderly Americans’ hospital bills, trustees of the program said on Wednesday. The Medicare program’s trust fund for hospital care will run out of money in 2030 the trustees said in a report. That was the same year…
Americans Want Medicare to Help Negotiate Down Drug Prices
NEW YORK (Reuters)—A vast majority of Americans say the Medicare health program for the elderly should be able to negotiate with drug companies to set lower medication prices, a practice currently prohibited by law, according to a survey released on Friday. The poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 87% of people surveyed…
U.S. House Passes Bill to Speed New Drugs to Market
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill aimed at speeding new drugs to the market after lawmakers defeated last-minute amendments that threatened to derail it. The House voted 344 to 77 in favor of the bill, known as the 21st Century Cures Act, which would require the FDA to streamline the…
How to Launch Successful Rheumatology Patient Advocacy Programs
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a two-part series showing how a busy office-based practice can incorporate patient advocacy into its standard workflow. In Part 1, we looked at the reasons for incorporating patient advocacy into your practice and offered an outline for implementing it. Part 2 amplifies the concepts explored in Part…
The ACR Partners with Coalition, Patient Advocacy Groups to Advocate for Rheumatology
In terms of getting our message heard in Washington, D.C., rheumatology faces a David vs. Goliath battle on several levels. Many industries have far greater resources, use multiple lobbying firms, and have advertising and lobbying budgets that eclipse ours by several hundred-fold. Rheumatology is far smaller than most other medical specialties; our membership is a…
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