Rheumatologists now have another treatment option to offer their patients with one of, if not the most, difficult autoimmune diseases to treat. New data add to the growing evidence of the safety and benefit of stem cell transplantation for patients with systemic sclerosis with internal organ involvement. New results of the Scleroderma: Cyclophosphamide or Transplantation…
Complement can deposit in various tissues, and previous studies have associated complement deposition with an increased risk for all-cause mortality and stroke. Now, new research underscores the relationship between rheumatic disease, the complement system and cardiovascular disease. In particular, inflammatory rheumatic disease status appears to be uniquely associated with mononuclear cell infiltrates in the vascular…
Although systemic lupus erythematosus still does not have a definite cause or cure, rheumatologists and researchers over the past 50 years have witnessed and contributed to a great deal of progress that helps patients, says Peter H. Schur, MD, director emeritus of the Lupus Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Dr. Schur’s…
A comparison study of the serious infection burden among patients with lupus found no major differences in patients treated with three separate immunosuppressive drug regimens. Given that serious infections are among the leading causes of hospitalizations and death in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), researchers investigated whether the incident rates differed in patients who…
When he worked for a multi-specialty practice, Jonathan M. Greer, MD, FACR, FACP, president, Arthritis and Rheumatology Associates of Palm Beach, and affiliate clinical professor of medicine, Nova Southeastern University, Boynton Beach, Fla., found that there were too many restrictions and controls and no way to enhance the revenue stream for rheumatologists. So he moved on…
The Medical Decision Making (MDM) of an evaluation and management (E/M) visit is one of the three components of determining the level of a patient’s visit. But the MDM can sometimes be the most difficult component, as this is where the provider’s thought process is quantified in deciding the correct level of E/M service. In the…
Take the challenge. CPT: 99213, 96413, 96415 x1, J1745 x 20* ICD-10: M05.09 This encounter is coded as 99213 because: History—The history of present illness is extended. The review of systems is detailed, and two of the three past, family, social history were documented, which makes the history level detailed. Exam—There are four systems examined,…
An 83-year-old established female patient who resides in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) and is diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis with rheumatoid factor in multiple joints returns to the office for her first infliximab infusion. She denies fevers, cough, dyspnea or concurrent illness, but has joint pain and swelling in both elbows and her left wrist….
If you speak to any advocate for rheumatology, each of us will tell you we’ve had an “a-ha” moment where we learned the importance of advocacy; my own came a dozen years ago. I was meeting with a legislative aide to a local Congressional representative who was a senior member of the committee overseeing Medicare….
I read with pleasure the March 2017 Rheuminations (written by Simon M. Helfgott, MD), but wanted to make a small emendation. There is one other rheumatologist–Nobel Laureate besides Philip Hench. Baruch (Barry) Blumberg (1925–2011) was a bona fide rheumatologist who trained in the mid-1950s with the renowned Charles Ragan at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New…