ISASS Coding and Reimbursement Task Force Chair Dr. Morgan Lorio participated in a meeting with officials from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, to discuss reimbursement of minimally invasive spine surgery procedures in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.  The meeting occurred February 6, 2019, and was focused primarily on CPT code 27279, Minimally...

Vertebral Augmentation: Coverage Indications, Limitations, and/or Medical Necessity OLIVIER CLERK-LAMALICE,1 DOUGLAS P. BEALL,2 KEVIN ONG,3 MORGAN P. LORIO4 1Western Canada Pain Institute, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 2Clinical Radiology of Oklahoma, Edmond, Oklahoma,3Exponent, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics—Centennial, Nashville, Tennessee ABSTRACT The ISASS Policy...

ISASS Recommendations and Coverage Criteria for Bone Graft Substitutes used in Spinal Surgery CELESTE ABJORNSON, PHD,1 ANTONIO BRECEVICH, MD,1 TUCKER CALLANAN, MS,1 CHRISTINA DOWE, BS,1 FRANK P. CAMMISA, JR, MD,1 MORGAN P. LORIO, MD, FACS2 1Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, New York, 2Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics, Nashville, Tennessee   INTRODUCTION Over the past 3 decades,...

The U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services (HHS) Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force recently released a draft report identifying gaps or inconsistencies and proposing updates to best practices and recommendations for pain management. The report comes after one year of regular meetings with the task force, which was authorized by section 101...