Why the study?
What are the trends in the utilization of spinal fusions and their correlation with Medicare reimbursement?
What are the trends in the utilization of spinal fusions and their correlation with Medicare reimbursement?
The increasing utilization of spinal fusions is paradoxically correlated with decreasing per-procedure Medicare reimbursement and cannot be explained by demographic shifts.
May reflect reimbursement incentives in spine surgery; leaves open causality and needs prospective confirmation.
Utilization of spinal fusions continues to increase and is not explained by increased proportion of elderly in the population, increased utilization of surgeries across specialties, or increased Medicare reimbursement. In fact, increased utilization of spinal fusions temporally correlated with decreasing per-procedure Medicare reimbursement.
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Sheikh et al. (2019) studied this question.
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