7 Things for Spine Surgeons to Know for Thursday

Here are seven things for spine surgeons to know for Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013. BMP-related complications bring substantial cost to patients, surgeons.
A retrospective review of patients who underwent minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion from 2007 to 2010 that included rhBMP-2 found that complications resulted in substantial financial cost for the patients and surgeon.
The review included 573 patients who underwent an MIS laminectomy with bilateral facetectomy, single TLIF cage, unilateral pedicel screw fixation and 12 mg or 4.2 mg of rhBMP-2 by a single surgeon. The average total cost per procedure was $19,224 and costs for re-operation equaled $14,785 per encounter for neuroforaminal bone growth and $20,267 for pseudarthrosis.

Researchers analyzed the feasibility of outpatient instrumented TLIF procedures.
A study published in the Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques examined the feasibility of outpatient instrumented transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion. Surgeries were performed either in the ambulatory surgery center setting or hospital outpatient department and researchers recorded complications that occurred from the moment of discharge up to six months postoperatively. They found four of the 27 patients who underwent the procedure at ASCs had complications within seven days postoperatively compared with one of the 25 patients who underwent the procedure in the hospital outpatient department.

Dr. Robert Watkins to perform neck surgery on New York Mets closer Bobby Parnell.
Robert Watkins, MD, board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon and co-director of the Marina Spine Clinic in Marina del Rey, Calif., is scheduled to perform neck surgery on the New York Mets closing pitcher Bobby Parnell. Dr. Watkins will perform the procedure to address a herniated disc.

NeuroSpine Institute to open Utah location in 2014.
NeuroSpine Institute announced it will open a new location in Park City, Utah, in January 2014. In addition to diagnostics and conservative spine care, the new location will focus on outpatient spine micro decompression, minimally invasive reconstruction, artificial disc surgery and stem cell disc regeneration.

NASS, AANS, others sent CMS comments on releasing physician payment data.
Several specialty societies, including the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons and North American Spine Society recently sent a letter to CMS commenting on the potential release of Medicare physician data. While the organizations would support the appropriate use of Medicare claims data published publicly, the letter also encourages CMS to partner with physicians to develop policies that would promote reliable and effective use of published information. The letter states "the release of raw data regarding physician claims for providing medical services should be limited for specific purposes and with appropriate safeguards."

60% of physicians still in private practice, only 8% less than 5 years ago.
The percentage of physicians who were practice owners decreased only 8 percentage points from 2007/2008 to 2012. The report shows hospital employment has increased, but 60 percent of physicians continue to work in practices wholly-owned by physicians.
Additionally, the survey reported 18 percent of physicians were in solo practice last year, which was down 6 percentage points over the past five years.

Henry Ford, BCBS launched spine surgery outcome improvement program.
Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System partnered with Blue Cross Blue Shield and Blue Care Network in Michigan to launch a spine surgery outcome improvement initiative in eight Michigan hospitals offering spine surgery for pain relief and mobility restoration.
The partnership, the Michigan Spine Surgery Improvement Collaborative, will collect data on spine surgery patients from the participating hospitals, which will be reviewed by neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons to develop best practices for improving patient outcomes.

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