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

From the College

Medical Decision Making and Coding

Melesia Tillman, CPC, CCP  |  

In my years of coding for rheumatology, I am often asked this type of question: “I have a patient who recently came in for a visit. She had two or three diagnoses, was placed on three or four different medications, and we ran one or two labs on her. Does this qualify for a level-four visit?”

Let the ACR Help You Improve Your Practice

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Today’s rheumatology practices face increasing internal and external pressures. Staffing effectiveness and efficiency, overhead increases, coding and billing issues, litigious employees, conflicts with colleagues, new competition, changing patient attitudes, new revenue constraints, and managed care contracting and compliance are just some of the pressures that constantly push practices to their limits.

Bridge Funding Award Keeps Researcher on the Path to Her Passion

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On June 25, 2008, the American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation received a letter from Sujata Sarkar, MD, one of the first recipients of the ACR REF/Arthritis Foundation Bridge Funding Award. In that letter Dr. Sarkar wrote, “I am very thankful to you … This award has come to me at a very crucial and vulnerable time in my academic career as a junior researcher.” The crucial and vulnerable time to which Dr. Sarkar refers is the time when she would need to search for alternative funding to pay for her rheumatology research career—or leave academia altogether.

I Am an Advocate

Charles King, MD  |  

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” Cliché perhaps, but certainly fitting in describing the practice of rheumatology of late. We have been blessed with a widening array of therapies with which to treat rheumatologic illnesses. The advent of the biological era promises even greater potential for meaningful reductions in disability and death from these diseases.

Vasculitis

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Vasculitis is a general term for a group of rare diseases that involve inflammation of blood vessels. There are many types of vasculitis, and the different diseases that fall under this term may vary significantly when it comes to symptoms, severity, and duration. Most forms of vasculitis are rare and affect both men and women of all ages.

Keep Your Money by Giving It Away

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If you read last month’s article, “Why the REF” (p. 13), written by Leslie J. Crofford, MD, president of ACR Research and Education Foundation (REF), announcing the REF’s new planned giving program, you may have asked yourself, “How can I benefit from this program?” The answer: The REF’s planned-giving program is designed to help you plan your legacy while supporting the mission of the REF—to improve patients’ lives through support of research and training that advances the prevention, treatment, and cure of rheumatic diseases. Put simply, you benefit monetarily, but—more importantly—you feel satisfaction because you helped ensure the future of rheumatology by making a charitable gift to the REF.

Incorrect Reimbursements—Is This Your Practice?

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Imagine you have received a remittance for patient John Doe for charge 99214 in the amount of $69.89. Your billing staff reconciles the money and updates the account. Would you consider this a successful reimbursement? If so, it may surprise you to know you have just been underpaid by $20 because the correct fee schedule was $89.89.