WASHINGTON, D.C.—Dozens of rheumatology leaders met with more than 100 politicos on Capitol Hill in mid-May as part of the ACR’s annual Advocacy Leadership Conference. Armed with research and advocacy training concerning a handful of important issues, rheumatologists, rheumatology interprofessional team members, government affairs specialists and others met with federal lawmakers, legislative aides and correspondents….
In the first scene of the Broadway stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, young Scout contemplates two words she has heard in the courtroom: “All rise,” and wonders if they really are meant to elevate the minds of all those present for the proceedings. That instruction—“All rise”—serves as a leitmotif throughout the…
The House of Delegates (HOD) is the policy-making body of the American Medical Association (AMA), and twice a year, representatives of all seated specialties, service societies and state medical associations review hundreds of resolutions to determine which will become AMA policies. Once those policies and priorities are determined or updated, we benefit from the AMA…
As the practice of step therapy grows more pervasive throughout the insurance industry, the protocols become increasingly confusing to navigate. Steps vary from insurer to insurer based on plan type, and formulary differences are too often based on economic incentives rather than outcome-based medicine. Patients are often left hanging in the balance while physicians’ offices…
(Reuters)—The Trump administration on Thursday scrapped one of its most ambitious proposals for lowering prescription medicine prices, backing down from a policy that would have required health insurers to pass on billions of dollars in rebates they receive from drugmakers to Medicare patients. The decision represents a new setback to President Donald Trump’s efforts to…
A post-hoc analysis showed upadacitinib is safe and effective for treating RA patients when used with methotrexate or non-methotrexate csDMARDs…
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters)—The future of Obamacare could be at stake on Tuesday when a coalition of Democratic-led states and House of Representatives urge a federal appeals court to overturn a Texas judge’s ruling that the U.S. healthcare reform law is unconstitutional. Republicans have repeatedly tried to repeal Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA), since…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Nearly three in 10 patients seeking care at the emergency department (ED) for acute gout will be discharged with a prescription for opioids, new research shows. “Our study suggests a high use of prescription opioid in patients discharged from the ED with a diagnosis of gout, a condition that can be managed…
Recent research shows bimekizumab may improve patient-reported outcomes and quality of life for ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients…
Corrections to reimbursement system errors with Aetna and a Medicare contractor demonstrate the latest wins for all providers by the ACR’s Insurance Subcommittee. But the committee remains hard at work advocating for rheumatologists on several fronts.