The changes spine surgeons are advocating for in healthcare today
By Admin | September 25, 2021
From fighting to maintain access to innovative technologies to pushing back against reimbursement cuts and increasing payer hurdles, the concerns of spine surgeons are many.
Four spine surgeons discuss the importance of advocacy at the state and federal levels and what changes they are pushing for in healthcare today.
Question: When it comes to advocacy, what are the most topical areas for spine surgeons today?
Ali H. Mesiwala, MD. DISC Sports & Spine Center (Newport Beach, Calif.): As healthcare rapidly evolves, spine surgeons need to be at the forefront of advocating for policy changes that maintain patients' access to emerging technologies, techniques and care. Restrictions imposed by insurance companies and other payers can make access to care very difficult and lead to poor outcomes. Historically, spine surgeons have focused more on the clinical aspect of medicine and left advocacy to politicians and lobbyists. Similarly, a lack of understanding of coding and procedural terminologies and requirements has created financial problems for many surgeons and led to missed opportunities.
Brian Gantwerker, MD. The Craniospinal Center of Los Angeles: As a member of two political action committees and my involvement in my state-level organization, the necessity for physicians to be advocates is especially important to me. The learned helplessness of your average spine surgeon is very distressing. I was recently at a meeting where some fascinating data on machine learning and predictive modeling was being showcased. The surgeon creating this model was using it to get insurers to pay...(More)
For more info please read,The changes spine surgeons are advocating for in healthcare today, by Becker's Spine Review
