Take the challenge. C—This claim cannot be coded without querying the infusion nurse and physician. There must be documentation of the patient’s weight to document the correct dosage of the medication to be given to the patient. Also the start time and the completion time of the infusion must be documented to know which drug…
A 70–year-old female patient with rheumatoid arthritis affecting multiple joints who is rheumatoid-factor positive but without organ or system failure returns for her third infliximab infusion. She is scheduled to receive 500 mg of the drug. How should this encounter be coded? 96413, 96415, J1745 x 50; ICD 10: M05.79 96413, 96415, J1745 x 50;…
Improving access to rheumatology care for underserved patient populations is a priority for the ACR, and the subject of a major position statement by the Committee on Rheumatologic Care (CORC) in 2017. According to the ACR’s 2015 Workforce Study, the existing shortage of rheumatologists and rheumatology health professionals is expected to worsen in the next…
All 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting attendees received a complimentary, one-year ACR Beyond Streaming subscription. Recipients have access to all of the recorded sessions from the Annual Meeting, as well as more than 500 sessions from past meetings. In addition, they have the opportunity to view recorded sessions from upcoming 2019 educational meetings, including the Winter…
The Rheumatology Research Foundation has embarked on its third and most ambitious fundraising campaign, with a goal of raising $75 million. The Leading Boldly: Transforming Rheumatology campaign will support Foundation programs to recruit the best and brightest into the field, train rheumatology health professionals at all career stages and support investigators conducting research that will…
The ACR will add a new professional journal, ACR Open Rheumatology, in January 2019. An open access journal, it will feature the same high-quality, rigorously peer-reviewed articles on original investigations in rheumatology research, as well as commentaries and reviews, as the ACR’s other journals, Arthritis & Rheumatology (A&R) and Arthritis Care & Research (AC&R). Co-Editors-in-Chief…
Donah Zack Crawford, MA, was a research coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on premenstrual syndrome and perimenopause, when her symptoms first started. “Someone suggested I see a rheumatologist,” she says, and not long after, Philadelphia-based physician Bruce Hoffman, MD, diagnosed her with rheumatoid arthritis. It was the mid-1990s, and treatment options were limited….
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule for the Quality Payment Program (QPP) year 3 (CY 2019) on Nov. 1, 2018. Below, we have compiled a list of key changes to ensure MIPS-eligible clinicians are accurately reporting for CY 2019: New MIPS-eligible clinician types: Physical therapist, occupational therapist, qualified speech-language…
It’s time to prepare for 2018 MIPS reporting via the Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) registry, and the ACR is here to help. To ensure you’re ready to submit your data to the CMS, RISE users should take the following steps: Complete the survey to notify the ACR of your intent to report via…
Election Day 2018 has come and gone, and a new class of legislators will be joining the ranks of Congress in January. RheumPAC is the most important tool we have to establish relationships with our new legislators and this year, our ACR volunteer leaders stepped up and matched all donations to RheumPAC leading up to…