Treatment with oral methylprednisolone may be associated with an increased risk of serious adverse events, specifically infection, in patients with IgA nephropathy. Despite the five-times higher risk, study results also showed a three-times lower risk of kidney failure for the treatment group…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Oropharyngeal carriage of Kingella kingae is strongly associated with osteoarticular infection in young children, a case-control study done from Canada and Switzerland shows. “Most of the kids who have osteoarticular infection with Kingella kingae will also have it in their throat, so if we do a throat swab, we can identify it…
The FDA has approved adalimumab-adbm, a biosimilar, to treat multiple chronic inflammatory diseases…
Effective for claims with dates of service on or after Oct. 1, 2017, UnitedHealthCare (UHC) plans to no longer reimburse consultation services represented by CPT codes 99241–99245 and 99251–99255. In lieu of a consultation services procedure code, UHC says it will “reimburse the appropriate evaluation and management (E/M) procedure code which describes the office visit,…
H.R. 807, Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act of 2017, will be one of the key issues discussed when members of the ACR’s Government Affairs Committee (GAC) visit Capitol Hill Sept. 26 during the annual Advocates for Arthritis event. This bill—as well as its companion bill in the Senate, S. 253—is aimed at repealing the…
The U.S. Congress refers to the bicameral legislature, consisting of the 435 voting and six non-voting members of the House of Representatives and the 100 members of the Senate. When we visit D.C. or express our policy positions to Congress, our message would ideally reach every member. The ultimate goal is to reach all 541…
In a recent clinical trial, tocilizumab helped sustain glucocorticoid-free remission in patients with giant cell arteritis. Patients also received a prednisone taper, and 50% of tocilizumab-treated patients achieved prednisone-free remission and were less likely to experience disease flare compared with placebo…
Elderly patients have unique requirements with regard to treatment for pain, rheumatic disease and other ailments. Collaboration between rheumatologists, geriatricians and primary care physicians is essential to avoid unnecessary interventions and improve care for this patient population…
The FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee voted 10 to 1 to recommend approval of tofacitinib to treat psoriatic arthritis…
New research found that older patients on prednisolone who are also treated with alendronate experience a significantly lower risk of hip fracture. Alendronate use was also associated with a lower risk of death…