News

Recently, SAS alerted its members to policy changes proposed by North Carolina BC/BS for lumbar fusion procedures. This proposed policy would unfairly reduce or eliminate fusion surgery as an option for many patients who would greatly benefit from such procedures. Our membership alert has generated a significant response, and will help inform and strengthen our advocacy with North Carolina BC/BS. Indeed, we are now working with myriad other medical societies, our industry partners, and individual surgeons to strongly express our concerns about this overly restrictive policy, and to request that it be modified to ensure patient access to appropriate surgical solutions to spine-related diseases and conditions. Concurrently, we have initiated a process to develop a Position Statement on lumbar fusion […]

The SAS is alerting our membership regarding recent changes to a US insurance reimbursement policy covering spine fusion procedures. The revised policy may affect all SAS members, including international members, in the future. As past SAS President Chun-Kun Park, MD, PhD said: “Such changes are likely to have an impact on the reimbursement policy quite a bit even in the other countries, because as you know, ‘bad news travels fast’ in the recent information society with advanced telecommunications. So, it can lead to a grave international issue.” We want to bring your attention an issue that may adversely impact patient access to necessary spine fusion procedures: We have learned that North Carolina Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance (BC/BS NC) has issued […]

We wanted to bring your attention to an issue that may adversely impact patient access to necessary spine fusion procedures. We have learned that North Carolina BC/BS has issued a new, more restrictive policy for lumbar fusion procedures, effective January 2011. View the Policy Here (PDF) (Note: Policy document removed from BC/BS NC web site.) Our initial read of this policy is that it is overly restrictive; specifically, there are several common scenarios where the standard of care includes fusion; however, this more restrictive policy may make it more difficult for those patients suffering low back pain due to spondylolisthesis to receive needed surgeries. These scenarios include: Patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis who don’t have as much leg pain as back pain. […]