Excelsior Orthopaedics, based in Amherst, N.Y., and the Hand and Shoulder Center of Western New York, based in Buffalo, have agreed to combine, according to a report from the Buffalo News.

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Wildwood Orthopaedic and Spine Hospital in Sylvania Township, Ohio, is scheduled to open in early October, according to a Toledo Blade report.

Hospital for Special Surgery researchers, led by Bryan T. Kelly, MD, co-director of the Center for Hip Pain and Preservation, identified a group of patients who have increased difficulty for surgical treatment of snapping psoas, according to a hospital news release.

Prior to 1950, sacroiliac joint dysfunction was thought the predominant cause of back pain. Post-1950, physicians have been more focused on the disc as the cause for back pain, which has led to several advances in that area of spine surgery. However, the decreased awareness of sacro-iliac dysfunction has lead to cases of misdiagnosis of SI joint dysfunction as discogenic back pain or sciatica.

"There are a few different studies recently about sacroiliac joint dysfunction showing that it affects about 25 percent of adults with low back pain," says Richard Kube, MD, a spine surgeon with Prairie Spine & Pain Institute in Peoria, Ill. "Given how common sacroiliac joint dysfunction is, it's important that we make it part of the training and examination process. If we have the wrong diagnosis and do the wrong treatment, the outcome is going to be poor."

Editor's note: This article first appeared in the RACMonitor.

Many physicians and other healthcare practitioners need to go "in-network" with managed care organizations because these network agreements drive patients into their office. These practitioners typically enter into managed care participation provider agreements with the health insurers for the privilege of becoming an "in-network" provider. The benefits of being in-network include the following:

A recent policy draft from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services and First Coast with Local Coverage Determination affecting the state of Florida concludes that Medicare will no longer cover multi-level lumbar fusion for symptomatic degenerative disc disease.

Here are five tips for orthopedic practice leaders striving to stay at the top of the market.