Predictors of the Incidence and Charges for Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery in Florida Hospitals During 2010

Over the past several decades rates of spine surgeries in the U.S. have increased dramatically. Spinal fusion surgery rates, in particular, have grown exponentially despite being one of the most costly, invasive, and controversial methods for treating patients suffering from back conditions. Furthermore, lumbar fusion surgeries continue to be performed at increasing rates despite a lack of scientific evidence and consensus that they are cost-effective and produce better clinical outcomes than less radical treatment of lower back pain. As a result, large amounts of healthcare dollars continue to be invested in these costly procedures which are potentially dangerous and have questionable efficacy in terms of improving patient outcomes. Importantly, there is a lack of population studies in the literature on spinal fusion surgeries from a health services research perspective. Therefore, the present research is a population based study using an administrative database and includes patients of all ages and payer types. The data used in the present study come from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and include all hospitalizations in Florida in 2010. The objective of the study is to analyze the incidence of spinal fusion surgeries in Florida hospitals for patients of all ages and payer types by demographic variables to understand who gets these surgeries and for which conditions. The first null hypothesis is that there are no statistically significant predictors of the incidence of lumbar/lumbosacral, dorsal/dorsolumbar spinal fusion surgeries in Florida hospitals. Logistic regression was used to analyze the incidence of fusion surgeries. The binary dependent variable was coded as a 1 for all patients who were a case (i.e. they received one of the five procedure codes being studied in the present research) and a 0 for all patients who were controls (meaning they did not receive any of the five fusion procedure codes). Logistic regression was used to predict the probability of an observation being a 1 given the independent variables included in the model. Additionally, hospital charges were analyzed to understand the associated hospital charges with these surgeries. The second null hypothesis is that there are no statistically significant predictors of the charges of Lumbar/Lumbosacral, Dorsal/Dorsolumbar spinal fusion surgeries in Florida Hospitals. A mixed effects model was used to test this hypothesis and the fixed effects which were included in the model were gender, age, race, principal payer, and principal procedure. A mixed effects model was chosen due to the fact that cases who had surgeries performed at the same hospital are not independent and therefore the data were clustered on hospitals. A random intercept term was used to address this fact. SAS software was used to complete all of the analyses. In 2010, there were 16,236 Lumbar/Lumbosacral, Dorsal/Dorsolumbar fusion surgery cases in Florida hospitals that were included in the case population and 21,856 individuals included in the control population for a total of 38,092 included in the study population. An understanding of who is most likely to receive a fusion surgery, at what age, and for which diagnoses, as has been done here, is extremely important. This knowledge can help researchers, policy makers, and physicians alike. Comprehensive physician practice guidelines for performing fusion surgeries still do not exist in the year 2013; therefore, in order to have the greatest impact, the efforts for creating the guidelines should be focused on those individuals who are most likely to receive fusions as shown for the first time by the data analyzed here. Given the high incidence of these surgeries in Florida alone, the need for practice guidelines cannot be overstated. The total hospital charges in Florida hospitals for the 16,236 cases were $2,095,413,584. Despite having the same principal diagnoses and a similar number of additional diagnoses, patients who received a fusion surgery resulted in approximately three times the charges as those incurred by the controls. Overall, the high incidence and charges for fusion surgeries shown in this study emphasize the importance of having a better understanding of when these surgeries are justified and for which patients. Without comprehensive practice guidelines established through evidence-based research this is difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish. The diagnoses which are most prevalent and show the most inconsistencies between cases may be a good starting point for such guidelines