Over three years unnecessary back surgeries have cost Medicare an estimated $1.9 billion, according to an analysis from the Lown Institute. Six things to know: 1. The Lown Institute evaluated Medicare fee-for-service claims from 2021 to 2023 and Medicare Advantage claims data from 2020 to 2022, according to an Oct. 8 news release. Overuse in spinal fusion/laminectomy patients was deemed for patients with low-back pain who did not have radicular symptoms, trauma, herniated disc, discitis, spondylosis, myelopathy, radiculopathy, radicular pain or scoliosis. Overuse for vertebroplasty was defined in patients with spinal fractures caused by osteoporosis, excluding patients with bone cancer, myeloma or hemangioma.

2. Physicians performed more than 200,000 unnecessary back surgeries on older ad

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