Professional Athletes And Back Surgery: A Teachable Moment On Overuse In Health Care?

After four back surgeries, Tiger Woods still is not back on the golf course. Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors, missed most of last season and even much of this year’s playoffs with headaches and recurrent pain after back surgery. These two high-profile patients, and their very public surgery results, should encourage us all to ask whether “more is always better” in health care. The Institute of Medicine National Roundtable on Health Care Quality coined the term “overuse” to describe the provision of health care services for which potential harms outweigh potential benefits. Overuse in health care comes in many forms, including unnecessary or risky diagnostic and screening tests, use of therapeutic procedures that are not needed or introduce unnecessary risk, and the inappropriate use of medications. Unnecessary expenditures for health care overuse in the United States are estimated to range from 10 percent to 30 percent of total health care spending or, at a minimum, $300 billion a year. Although no medical specialty is immune from practices that lead to overuse, opportunities to improve quality of care for low back pain, while also reducing costs, are particularly apparent. The management of low back pain accounts for more than $86 billion in health-related expenditures annually, rivaling cancer and heart disease as the most expensive diagnosis treated in the United States. Since the early 1990s, overuse of high-cost procedures for low back pain h...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Payment Policy Quality chronic pain Source Type: blogs