NASS Announces New Coverage Policy Recommendations

The North American Spine Society (NASS) has revealed the first 13 of its new coverage policy recommendations for common spine care treatments, procedures and diagnostics. The organization
announced the new recommendations to improve patient access to evidence-based spine care in a news release.

“Maintaining patient access to high-quality, evidenced-based and ethical spine care is the single most important part of NASS’ mission,” William Watters III, M.D., M.M.S., M.S., stated in the release. “It is our hope that payers, spine specialists and their patients will use these evidence-based coverage recommendations as a reference to advocate for appropriate care for patients.”

A multidisciplinary Coverage Task Force of spine specialists that NASS convened spent a year systematically reviewing the scientific literature and developing the coverage recommendations that are now available, according to the press release.

Coverage policy recommendations are now available for the following spine treatments:

• Cervical artificial disc replacement
• Endoscopic discectomy
• Epidural cervical spinal injections
• Interspinous device without fusion
• Interspinous fixation with fusion
• Laser spine surgery
• Lumbar artificial disc replacement
• Lumbar discectomy
• Lumbar fusion
• Lumbar laminotomy
• Lumbar spinal injections
• Percutaneous thoracolumbar stabilization
• Recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein (rhBMP-2)

The coverage policy recommendations use an evidence-based approach and in cases where high-level data were absent or scare the recommendation reflects the experience and expertise of the committee members to present reasonable standard practice indications in the United States

“This proactive approach marks an exciting shift for NASS and the entire spine field,” Watters stated. “Starting today, patients and their spine care providers will be able to have instant access to accurate evidence-based information to help them advocate for appropriate coverage decisions.”