Objective: To identify inefficiencies in drug and medical service utilization related to pain management in patients with osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain.
Study Design: This retrospective cohort study applied revised measures of pain management inefficiencies to Humana Medicare members with osteoarthritis and/or chronic low back pain.
Methods: Subjects had either 2 or more claims for osteoarthritis on different days or 2 or more claims for low back pain 90 or more days apart, from January 1, 2008, to June 30, 2010, with the first occurrence assigned the index date. Inefficiencies were identified for 365 days postindex.Pain-related healthcare costs postindex were compared between members with and without inefficiencies. A generalized linear model calculated adjusted costs per member controlling for age, sex, and comorbidities.
Results: Most members diagnosed with osteoarthritis, chronic low back pain, or both (N = 68,453) had at least 1 inefficiency measure (n = 37,863) during the postindex period. High per member costs were for repeated surgical procedures ($26,451) and inpatient admissions ($19,372) compared with members without inefficiencies ($781; P < .0001). High total costs (prevalence times per member cost) were for repeated diagnostic testing and excessive office visits. Members with an inefficiency had adjusted pain-related costs 5.42 times higher than those of members without an inefficiency (P <.0001).
Conclusions: Pain management inefficiencies are common and costly among Humana Medicare members with osteoarthritis and/or chronic low back pain. Further work by providers and payers is needed to determine benefits of member identification and early intervention for these inefficiencies.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Facility Medicaid Payer Burden and Nonelective Admission for Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia.
JAMA Surg
January 2025
Department of Surgery, State University of New York, Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn.
Importance: Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) is a major public health issue that requires considerable human and physical resources to provide optimal patient care. It is essential to characterize the disease severity and resource needs of patients with CLTI presenting to facilities of varying resource capacities.
Objective: To investigate the association between facility-level Medicaid payer proportions and the incidence of nonelective admissions among patients admitted for CLTI.
PBCS-ConvNeXt: Convolutional Network-Based Automatic Diagnosis of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver in Abdominal Ultrasound Images.
J Imaging Inform Med
January 2025
Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a highly prevalent chronic liver condition characterized by excessive hepatic fat accumulation. Early diagnosis is crucial as NAFLD can progress to more severe conditions like steatohepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma without timely intervention. While liver biopsy remains the gold standard for NAFLD assessment, abdominal ultrasound (US) imaging has emerged as a widely adopted non-invasive modality due to convenience and low cost.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClassification of paravertebral muscle trophism and its correlation with thoraco-lumbar fascia thickening in patients with chronic low back pain.
J Ultrasound
January 2025
Musculoskeletal Ultrasound School, Italian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Bologna, Italy.
Objective: The aim of this work is to demonstrate how the chronicity of low back pain can modify the trophism of the paraspinal muscles, by performing an ultrasound and MRI evaluation of the paraspinal muscles in the lumbar spine and correlating it to the time of onset of low back pain.
Materials And Methods: An ultrasound evaluation was carried out in the lumbar area with a 5-17 MHz linear probe of the paraspinal muscles of the lumbar region, compared with the MRI of the lumbar spine, in patients presented to our attention for chronic low back pain (> 6 months), from January 2021 to January 2023. In each patient, two series of images were analyzed, in the coronal and sagittal planes.
Effects of different types of Tai Chi intervention on motor function in older adults: a systematic review.
Aging Clin Exp Res
January 2025
Department of Nursing, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Background: Tai Chi (TC) is widely acknowledged for its positive impact on improving motor function in older adults. Nevertheless, limited research has directly compared the effects of different TC styles on older adults with functional impairments.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of different TC styles on motor function in older adults with functional impairments.
Maternal lipids in overweight and obesity: implications for pregnancy outcomes and offspring's body composition.
Semin Immunopathol
January 2025
Department of Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Overweight and obesity (OWO) are linked to dyslipidemia and low-grade chronic inflammation, which is fueled by lipotoxicity and oxidative stress. In the context of pregnancy, maternal OWO has long been known to negatively impact on pregnancy outcomes and maternal health, as well as to imprint a higher risk for diseases in offspring later in life. Emerging research suggests that individual lipid metabolites, which collectively form the lipidome, may play a causal role in the pathogenesis of OWO-related diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!