Analysis of State Insurance Coverage for Nonpharmacologic Treatment of Low Back Pain as Recommended by the American College of Physicians Guidelines.
Robert BonakdarDania PalankerMegan M SweeneyPublished in: Global advances in health and medicine (2019)
Other than spinal manipulation, evidence-based, nonpharmacological therapies recommended by the 2017 ACP guidelines were routinely excluded from EHB benchmark plans. Insurance coverage discourages multidisciplinary rehabilitation for chronic pain management by providing ambiguous guidelines, restricting ongoing treatments, and excluding behavioral or complementary therapy despite a cohesive evidence base. Better EHB plan coverage of nondrug therapies may be a strategy to mitigate the opioid crisis. Recommendations that reflect current research-based findings are provided to update chronic pain policy statements.