Borgess Medical Center's spine and hip and knee replacement services have earned it the BlueCross BlueShield Blue Distinction honor, according to a MLive report.

Crestwood Medical Center in Huntsville, Ala., has been named a Blue Distinction Center + in the areas of spine and knee and hip replacement, according to an AL report.

BlueCross and BlueShield has named Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif., a Blue Distinction Center in the areas of spine and knee and hip replacement, according to a News Review report.

Here are seven things for spine surgeons to know for Thursday, April 4, 2013.

Seven spine surgeons weigh in on how the newly-enacted medical device excise tax will impact the field of spinal surgery. The tax took effect Jan. 1 to fund reforms from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 

Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines (Iowa) has been named a Blue Distinction Center in the areas of spinal surgery and knee and hip replacement by BlueCross and BlueShield, according to a Business Record report.

Stamford (Conn.) Hospital announced the opening of its Orthopedic and Spine Institute at Chelsea Piers Connecticut in Stamford.

Caesarea, Israel-based Mazor Robotics will sell four of its Renaissance spine systems to a major U.S. hospital corporation for acute-care use in four U.S. markets.

At the 11th Annual Orthopedic, Spine and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference, in Chicago, Steven A. Gunderson, DO, will give a presentation titled "Most Common Accreditation Problems in Orthopedic, Spine and Pain-Driven ASCs."

In a recent retrospective study published in Spine, researchers analyzed the rate of infection seen in vertebral fusion patients that received irradiated cancellous allograft or iliac crest bone autograft.