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

HIPAA Audit Activities Increase in 2016

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In the coming months, rheumatologists may want to pay particular attention to their email inboxes. By the end of the year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will complete stage I, phase II of a series of desk and on-site audits designed to assess providers and their business…

End of the Road: ICD-10 Grace Period Expires in October

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The final milestone on the road to implementing ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision) is drawing near. The 12-month grace period is scheduled to end as of Oct. 1, 2016, but that date will most likely pass with little notice, because implementation appears to have gone well since Oct. 1, 2015. “On average, it…

The ACR & Simple Tasks Announce First-Ever Rheumatic Disease Awareness Month

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Until now, rheumatic diseases have never had a unified national health observance to bring stakeholders—physicians, patients, patient advocacy groups, government, pharmaceutical companies and the public—together. This September, the ACR and Simple Tasks are launching Rheumatic Disease Awareness Month to improve the public’s understanding and awareness of the symptoms, risk factors, treatment options, personal and economic impact, and lifestyle and healthcare challenges associated with rheumatic disease…

Aetna Pulls Back on Obamacare Health Insurance Plans in 2017

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters)—Aetna Inc., the No. 3 U.S. health insurer, on Monday said that due to persistent financial losses on Obamacare plans, it will sell individual insurance on the government-run online marketplaces in only four states next year, down from the current 15 states. Aetna’s decision follows similar moves from UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana…

High-Salt Diet May Trigger Gene Silencing & a Lupus Phenotype

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New research has demonstrated that a high-salt diet may increase the differentiation of follicular helper T cells (Tfh). A high-salt diet also increased lupus features in MRL/lpr mice, suggesting that the genes that increased expression in response to salt intake were similar to the genes that had increased expression in lupus CD4+ T cells…

Senior Drivers Taking Opioid Painkillers Have Higher Crash Risk

Linda Thrasybule  |  

(Reuters Health)—Seniors who get behind the wheel soon after starting to use narcotic pain relievers have twice the risk of getting into a serious car crash as their peers who use non-opioid painkillers, Swedish researchers say. Senior drivers who’d been using opioid painkillers regularly for several months also had higher odds of getting into accidents,…

Most Seniors Won’t Abuse Opioids After Surgery

Andrew M. Seaman  |  

(Reuters Health)—Seniors who receive prescriptions for opioid drugs to control pain after major surgery don’t usually end up addicted to them, research from Canada shows. One year after having major surgery, less than 1% of patients over age 66 were still taking opioids, according to a report in JAMA Surgery. Recent research has suggested the…

Treatment Options for Severe Refractory Gout When Pegloticase Fails

Diana M. Girnita, MD, PhD, Cody Lee, MD, & Christine Chhakchhuak, MD  |  

Pegloticase is a new alternative therapy for patients with severe, refractory gout unresponsive to other urate-lowering agents. The goal of this therapy is to reduce disease burden, tophi size and frequency of flares and to improve quality of life when other treatments have failed. Persistent lowering of plasma uric acid (PUA) to less than 6…

Treating Asymptomatic Hyperuricemia Could Lower Risk of Developing Chronic Conditions

Martin Garber, DO  |  

When uric acid becomes elevated in the human body, a variety of problems can develop, most notably gout—a painful, inflammatory arthritis caused by uric acid crystal deposition in joints. Chronically elevated uric acid can also lead to painful kidney stones. The majority of patients found to have hyperuricemia, however, never go on to develop gout…