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

From the College

Is Improving Your Career One of Your Resolutions?

Cynthia M. Piccolo  |  

Another New Year’s has just passed, and if you’ve opted for one of the typical resolutions, you’ve decided to lose weight, exercise more, or quit a nasty habit like smoking. If you’re one to make resolutions, have you considered adding a career-related resolution to your self-improvement goals for the new year? Most of us spend a significant portion of our lives at work, so it makes sense.

Hiring Billing Staff

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One of the most important things in a medical practice is hiring billing staff. This task may sound easy, but it’s not. In today’s medical environment, knowing even basic things to look for when hiring billing staff will help you establish a practice that runs successfully.

Reach Beyond the Digital Walls of Your Practice

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How much time and money do you spend trying to find information about your patients? Are you frustrated by the difficulties in obtaining patient medical records, test results, lab reports, radiology results, and insurance eligibility from organizations across state lines, down the street, or even across the hall? Do you ever order redundant tests simply because you are unable to access the results of tests ordered by another member of the care team?

Billing for Time

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When counseling or coordination of care dominates the encounter between the physician and the patient and his or her family, time may be considered the controlling factor to qualify for a particular level of E/M coding.

ALERT: 2010 ICD-9-CM/CPT Code Changes

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As of January 1, physicians can no longer bill the inpatient/outpatient consultation evaluation and management (E/M) codes for Medicare patients. E/M codes for new or established patients should be used as appropriate.

Reach Out To Local Media to Promote Rheumatology

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The ACR is committed to advocating on behalf of its members. This could be on Capitol Hill, by working with insurance providers, or by working with the media to promote the work of rheumatologists and rheumatology health professionals and advance the issues affecting them.

Without You, ACR REF Wouldn’t Be Here

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In 1998, the ACR Research and Education Foundation (REF) funded a total of $500,000 in grants. This year, the REF funded more than $4.6 million in grants through its core portfolio, which is an increase of over $4 million in funding capabilities in just 10 years. The REF also achieved the distinction of becoming the second largest funding source—just behind the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—of rheumatology research and training programs in the United States and was recently awarded the prestigious four-star rating from Charity Navigator. These achievements could not have been realized without the generous financial support of REF donors.