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

Practice Support

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Evidence-Based Practice: Making it a Reality

Karen L. Kerr, MSN, NP, CPNP, APRN-BC  |  

Evidence-based practice has become the standard of care in the 21st century. Evidence-based practice is “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.” It requires the integration of a health professional’s clinical expertise, the best available scientific evidence, and patient values and preferences to guide clinical decisions for individual patients.

New ACR Strategic Plan Approved

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On May 11, the ACR leadership approved a revised strategic plan for 2007–2009 that will guide the College’s work and determine the path the organization will take. The plan has a direct effect on the way the organization serves its members because ACR committees develop and implement programs and services based on the priorities it outlines.

Profiling Providers: Is Your Practice Ready?

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Medicare may start profiling physicians as soon as mid 2008. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) develop a profiling system to identify physicians with inefficient practice patterns. At a House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health hearing, Herbert Kuhn, acting deputy administrator of the CMS, said that identifying inefficient physicians, or “profiling,” would involve comparing the number of tests ordered by a physician for certain types of patients with the number ordered by colleagues in cases with the same outcome.

Be Aware of New Waived Tests

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Keeping current on changes to laboratory certifications for common lab tests can save your practice time—and money. Since the passage of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) in 1988, all health-assessment laboratory tests are ranked for complexity, and their complexity dictates which labs can process Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)–reimbursed tests. In accordance with CLIA, each laboratory facility must register with CMS to receive a CLIA certification. There are five certifications, each with differing degrees of complexity, listed from least to most complex: Certificate of Waiver, Certificate of Provider-Performed Microscopy Procedures, Certificate of Registration, Certificate of Compliance, and the Certificate of Accreditation.