Recently, an important study exposed a shocking reality: one unnecessary spine surgery is performed every eight minutes in the United States on a Medicare patient. This was reported by the highly respected Lown Institute, a bipartisan, non-profit, independent think tank. Unnecessary spine surgery cost taxpayers over $2 billion during a three-year period. In addition to wrongfully spending taxpayer dollars, unnecessary spine surgeries put patients at unnecessary risk for bad outcomes. Medicare pays over $600 million per year for unnecessary spine surgeries. Kevin Pauza MD, Founding Partner of Texas Spine and Joint Hospital, and the Pauza Spine Institute, reminded the public that the true cost far exceeds $600 million to Medicare, because $600 million reflects only the money for spine surgeries, and doesn’t reflect added costs for treating complications caused by unnecessary spine surgeries. These costs reach into the billions of dollars per year. “Common complications include stroke, paralysis, and kidney failure. Over 10% of patients undergoing spine surgery experience serious adverse events or complications. Additionally, there’s immeasurable toll of suffering on patients and their families.”
The most commonly performed unnecessary spine surgeries include laminectomy, fusion, and discectomy.
In addition to exposing unnecessary Medicare spine surgeries, it’s important to remember that younger patients are also undergoing unnecessary spine surgeries at alarmingly increasing rates.
Not My Spine Surgeon:
Most patients believe: ”Not my spine surgeon, because mine’s renowned and my hospital’s renowned. My surgeon showed me why I need spine surgery.” However, overuse and unnecessary spine surgeries occurred equally or worse among the nation’s most prestigious hospitals, including those on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll for America’s Best Hospitals. Hospitals with high overuse rates included the University of California, the University of Pennsylvania, Baylor, Jefferson, Mayo, and others.
Money and the Spine Surgery Industry:
The Lown Institute reported that financial incentives are driving the surge of unnecessary spine surgeries. Payments to spine surgeons are disguised through travel to luxury destinations with spouses to “give scientific lectures” or “learn new techniques.”
The average starting salary offered to spine surgeons is $941,000/year, plus productivity bonuses multiplied by that base salary.
Better Non-surgical Alternatives to Spine Surgery
Recently, Regenerative Medicine procedures are now safer and more efficacious than traditional spine surgeries. A recent study published in a scientific journal reported that the DISCSEEL® Procedure demonstrated greater safety and efficacy than spine surgeries, including laminectomy, fusion, and discectomy. To assure independence of the results of the DISCSEEL Procedure study, data of this non-surgical DISCSEEL Procedure was collected independently by a research group supported and endorsed by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery.
Study patients who underwent the DISCSEEL Procedure were followed for over three years and demonstrated no adverse events or complications. For this reason, the US Veterans Administration and Department of Defense agreed to train spine surgeons to offer the DISCSEEL Procedure instead of spine surgery to all Veterans. Medicare will likely soon follow and offer the non-surgical DISCSEEL Procedure. Dr. Pauza, lead investigator of the study said, “This is a good start to improve treatment of Veterans and Medicare patients in the future who suffer from chronic low back pain, neck pain, and sciatica.”
“We trust that our doctors make decisions based on the best available evidence, but that’s not always the case,” said Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute.
Important Facts:
U.S. hospitals performed over 200,000 unnecessary back surgeries on Medicare patients.
One unnecessary spine surgery is performed every 8 minutes.
Unnecessary spine surgeries cost Medicare over $ 2 billion during the past three years.
During the past 3-years, physicians received over $64 million from spine surgery device companies for speaking fees, consulting, and travel, according to Open Payments data analyzed by Conflixis.
Hospitals performing unnecessary spine surgeries included those on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Role, including the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Baylor, University of California, and others.