Becker's Healthcare November 14, 2024
In the last three years, U.S. hospitals performed more than 200,000 unnecessary back surgeries on Medicare beneficiaries, according to a Nov. 14 report by the Lown Institute Hospital Index.
The Lown Institute, which used Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage claims data from the last three years, limited hospitals with the highest and lowest overuse rates to facilities with high volumes — at least 500 spinal fusions or patient visits for osteoporotic fractures. Spinal fusion and laminectomy procedures were deemed overused for patients with low back pain, excluding those with radicular symptoms, trauma, herniated disc, discitis, spondylosis, myelopathy, radiculopathy, radicular pain or scoliosis. Vertebroplasty was considered overused for patients with spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis, excluding those with bone cancer, myeloma...
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