As orthopedic surgeons struggle to maintain strong revenue amid ongoing reimbursement challenges, there may be a number of unexplored avenues for practitioners.
Two surgeons told Becker’s about the most critical underexplored revenue streams for 2025.
Ask Orthopedic Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to orthopedic surgeons around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting spine care. Becker’s invites all orthopedic surgeon and specialist responses.
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Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What is one revenue stream you think more orthopedic practices should explore in 2025?
Patrick Denard, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at Southern Oregon Orthopedics (Medford): My answer is perioperative nutrition. It’s a win-win for patients and ancillary revenue generator without risk, providing nutrition options for patients and potential revenue to surgeons.
Reza Jazayeri, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at Kaiser Permanente (Los Angeles): Perioperative, targeted nutritional supplementation represents a major opportunity. In fact, I would describe it as a triple win: it benefits patients, creates an ancillary revenue stream for surgeons and provides meaningful cost savings for hospitals and health systems. Data increasingly show that implementing perioperative nutrition protocols can significantly decrease complications such as infections, readmissions, retears and prolonged length of stay. In the current environment of cost containment and value-based care, nutritional supplementation is a value-added, low-risk, evidence-supported intervention that benefits all stakeholders.
