The North American Spine Society (NASS) has expanded its evidence-based coverage recommendations to include four new topics and is currently revising six existing ones. These recommendations, developed by a multidisciplinary committee led by Co-Chairs Mohamad Bydon, MD, and Byron Schneider, MD, with guidance from Health Policy and Advocacy Council Director Karin Swartz, MD, are designed to educate physicians and payors on fair coverage for spine care.
New Coverage Topics
The committee is actively developing recommendations for the following new areas:
- Lumbar Medial Branch Electrical Stimulation
- Growing Rod for Scoliosis
- Annular Closure
- Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression (MILD)
Topics Under Revision
Six existing recommendations are undergoing updates to reflect the latest clinical evidence:
- Facet Joint Interventions
- Sacroiliac Joint Injections and Radiofrequency Ablation
- Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS)
- Recombinant Human Bone Morphogenetic Protein (rhBMP-2)
- Minimally Invasive Sacroiliac Joint Fusion
- Endoscopy Decompression
Access and Resources
NASS currently offers
29 total coverage recommendations as individual PDF documents:
- Cost: These documents are available at no cost to NASS members and payors.
- Where to Access: All recommendations can be downloaded from the official NASS Coverage Page.
- Usage: To date, there have been over 19,000 downloads of these evidence-based resources.
For questions or to learn more about NASS’ coverage efforts, please contact us at
coverage@spine.org.