Is There Variation in Procedural Utilization for Lumbar Spine Disorders Between a Fee-for-Service and Salaried Healthcare System?

CONCLUSIONS: The preferential use of interbody fusion procedures was higher in the fee-for-service setting irrespective of the underlying diagnosis. These results speak to the existence of provider inducement within the field of spine surgery. This reality portends poor performance for surgical practices and hospitals in Accountable Care Organizations and bundled payment programs in which provider inducement is allowed to persist.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, economic and decision analysis.
PMID: 28074438 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research - January 9, 2017 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Schoenfeld AJ, Makanji H, Jiang W, Koehlmoos T, Bono CM, Haider AH Tags: Clin Orthop Relat Res Source Type: research