By Laura Dyrda
In April, Pacific Business Group on Health expanded its Employers Centers of Excellence Network to include spine surgery. The network covers employees from large companies, including Walmart and Lowe’s, sending patients to a regional “center of excellence” for certain procedures. The network initially provided hip and knee replacements to employees last year for a bundled rate and their expansion into spine heralds trends for the future.
“I believe we will continue to see increasing efforts on the part of employers and large corporations to be direct purchasers of healthcare services,” says Jonathan Slotkin, MD, director of spinal surgery, Geisinger Health System Neuroscience Institute. “Programs of this type feature bundled rates, transparency and vigorous iterative assessment of quality outcomes and patient satisfaction.” Dr. Slotkin is also the medical director of Geisinger in Motion, Division of Applied Research and Clinical Informatics, Geisinger Health System.
