NEW YORK (Reuters)—The number of consumers who signed up for 2018 Obamacare health insurance next year surpassed the 1 million mark in the second-to-last week of enrollment on the federally-run HealthCare.gov website, picking up the pace ahead of the December 15 deadline. Through December 9, 4.68 million consumers signed up for the insurance in the 39 states…
High-resolution computed tomography shows evidence of ILD.
The ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice, a video
In collaboration with the American College of Chest Physicians, the ACR released two new comprehensive guidelines aimed at improving the screening, monitoring, and treatment of patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) secondary to systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs). Recently, Sindhu R. Johnson, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada, director of the Toronto Scleroderma Program and principal investigator for the guideline, and Elana J. Bernstein, MD, MSc, Florence Irving associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at Columbia University, New York City, and co-first author, presented a webinar to talk about how the guidelines were developed and present some of the recommendations and their rationale: Watch the recording now!
Medical Lab Trade Group Sues Over U.S. Reimbursement Cuts
(Reuters)—A U.S. trade association representing medical laboratories filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging a new reimbursement system used by the federal government that it said would reduce how much Medicare pays for labs by about $670 million in 2018. The American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) in a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., said…
Virtual Groups: Another Option for Reporting MIPS Participation through RISE
RISE now has three means of reporting through the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS): individual, group and the recently added virtual groups. According to the CMS, virtual groups allow individual MIPS-eligible clinicians or groups consisting of not more than 10 MIPS-eligible clinicians to join together and report as if they were a single entity. The…
The ACR Lobbies Against New Part B Drug Cost Adjustment Rule
The ACR and a number of other physician medical associations are lobbying for an immediate legislative fix to a piece of the MACRA law that factors high-cost Part B drugs into a rheumatology practice’s Medicare reimbursement rate through the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). This change, which goes into effect immediately, will impact practices in…
RISE: What’s New for You in 2018?
Medicare’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) has been on a gradual incline toward requiring full participation by eligible providers. During its transition stage, reporting for the first year (2017) allowed providers the option to report as partial, full, minimum or not at all, with varying degrees of penalties and incentives across all three reporting components:…
CVS Health to Acquire Aetna for $69 billion
(Reuters)—U.S. drugstore chain operator CVS Health Corp said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire U.S. health insurer Aetna Inc. for $69 billion, seeking to tackle soaring healthcare spending through lower-cost medical services in pharmacies. This year’s largest corporate acquisition will combine one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) and pharmacy operators with…
Consumers with High-Deductible Health Plans Could Be Smarter Shoppers
(Reuters Health)—Even when consumers have health plans that require them to pay a high amount out-of-pocket for care, they often don’t talk to doctors about the price of treatments or shop around to get the best deal, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers focused on high-deductible health plans, which typically have lower monthly premiums than other…
Obesity’s Effects on Inflammatory Markers in Patients with RA
New research has examined the effect of obesity on inflammatory markers, specifically C-reactive protein (CRP) level and erythrocyte sedimentation rate, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Researchers found higher BMIs were associated with higher CRP levels in women both with and without RA, suggesting the phenomenon is related to adiposity and not an indication of disease activity. For men with RA, low BMI was associated with higher CRP levels, which proved to be RA-specific but not a direct causal effect of adiposity…
Sen. Lisa Murkowski Addresses Rheumatologists During ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, Tax Reform & More
Greetings, advocates! This month’s Washington update covers how Congress’s tax proposals affect rheumatology, the ACR’s plan to fight Medicare’s adjustments to Part B drug costs in MIPS, the good news of Medicare’s new individualized biosimilar reimbursement, advances in the rheumatology-specific Alternative Payment Model and developments in Congress’s awareness about the perilous pharmacy benefit manager system….
Year in Review: Expert Covers 2017’s Key Clinical Findings
In a Year in Review session at the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, Daniel Solomon, MD, MPH, highlighted the latest and most intriguing aspects of clinical research on rheumatic diseases from 2017. His discussion touched on medical therapy, genetics, the effects of bariatric surgery and diet, cancer risk and more…
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