Becker’s Spine Review

CMS’ shift toward greater financial risk is forcing spine surgeons to look beyond the operating room at the systems that could increasingly determine how they are paid. Three spine surgeons discussed why outcomes tracking, patient-reported data and practice infrastructure could…

Researchers at New York City-based Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery identified stem cells that give rise to tendons and ligaments and found that their overactivity may contribute to lumbar spinal stenosis. The researchers identified the stem cells…

Robert “Bob” Draper Jr., MD, one of Baltimore’s first Black orthopedic surgeons and a former chief resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, died Aug. 29 after a blood clot traveled to his heart. He was 79. Dr. Draper earned his medical…

CMS’ 2026 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and ASC Payment System Final Rule marked the largest single-year expansion of outpatient-eligible surgery since at least 2018, surpassing, in one year, the 59 procedures Becker’s tracked as added to the ASC-covered list…

Sidney (Mont.) Health Center partnered with Synergy Health Partners to expand its orthopedic services and will add two orthopedic surgeons this fall. Michael Calfee, MD, will begin seeing patients in October and James Ingram, MD, will begin seeing patients in…

Long Beach, Calif.-based Golden State Orthopedics & Spine provided notice of a data security incident. On July 2, Golden State Orthopedics & Spine detected unusual activity within its network and engaged third-party forensic experts to investigate, according to an Aug.…