LATE-BREAKING NEWS Editor’s note: The ACR praises Congressional leaders for passing today’s (2/9) sweeping spending agreement, which includes a technical provision reversing a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) policy that would have linked physicians’ quality payment adjustments to Medicare Part B drug costs starting in 2019. The ACR also applauded the inclusion of…
What You Need to Know about the New Medicare Card Project
Beginning in April 2018, Medicare patients will receive newly designed Medicare identification cards that replace their Social Security numbers (SSNs) with unique, randomly assigned, alphanumeric identification numbers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is making the change to protect patients 65 and older from exposing their SSNs in efforts to “help prevent fraud,…
MACRA Has Arrived—& What You Do Now Counts
Changes to reimbursement introduced by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) will affect your Medicare income for 2019. “Rheumatologists generally know that MACRA is up and running,” says Angus Worthing, MD, FACR, FACP, clinical assistant professor of rheumatology at Georgetown University Medical Center and chair of the ACR’s Government Affairs Committee. “Virtually every…