Performance of Pain Interventionalists From Different Specialties in Treating Degenerative Disk Disease-Related Low Back Pain

Objectives To examine the utilization of current common treatments by providers from different specialties and the effect on delaying spinal surgery in patients with disk degenerative disease (DDD) related low back pain. Design Retrospective observational study using data from the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database (2005-2013). Setting Not applicable. Participants Patients (N=6229) newly diagnosed with DDD-related low back pain who received interventional treatments from only 1 provider specialty and continuously enrolled in the database for 3 years after diagnosis. Main Outcome Measures Measures of treatment utilization and cost were constructed for patients who received spinal surgery within 3 years after diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine time to surgery among provider specialties and generalized linear models were used to examine cost differences among provider specialties. Results Of the 6229 patients, 427 (6.86%) underwent spinal surgery with unadjusted mean interventional treatment costs ranging from $555 to $851. Although the differences in mean costs across provider specialties were large, they were not statistically significant. Cox proportional hazards models showed that there was no significant difference between provider specialties in the time from DDD diagnosis to spinal surgery. However, patients diagnosed with DDD at a younger age and receiving physical therapy had significantly delayed time to surgery (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54-0.81 and hazard ratio, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.62-0.96, respectively). Conclusions Although there were no statistically significant differences among provider specialties for time to surgery and cost, patients receiving physical therapy had significantly delayed time to surgery.