A south Alabama hospital was highlighted in a recent report as performing one of the highest rates of unnecessary back surgeries in the country.
Over 37% of the spinal fusions performed at Mobile Infirmary were considered to be ‘unnecessary’ by the Lown Institute, a non-partisan think-tank in Massachusetts that releases an annual hospital ranking focused on patient safety and the value of care.
The national rate of spinal fusion overuse is 14%, according to the analysis.
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Hospitals performed more than 200,000 unnecessary back surgeries over a three-year period, according to an analysis by the Lown Institute, a health care watchdog group. The useless treatments put patients at risk for complications and cost Medicare about $2 billion, the analysis found. Furthermore, there was a large variation in rates of overuse among individual hospitals, ranging from zero to more than half of procedures.
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A report last week from the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, found hospitals and physicians performed over 200,000 unnecessary back surgeries on Medicare beneficiaries over three years, based on three years’ worth of Medicare and Medicare Advantage claims data. Those procedures cost Medicare about $2 billion between 2019 and 2022, the report said.
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