Dive Brief:

• In workers' compensation claims, low back injuries are the most costly musculoskeletal condition, representing 20-25% of all loss dollars.
• Use of MRIs and CT scans has increased substantially to diagnose and dictate treatment for chronic low back pain. Medical imaging drives up the cost of claims, yet outcomes for injured workers have not improved.
• The real source of pain and distress usually lies elsewhere, but treatment options, usually pain medication, are aimed at the abnormality showing in the spinal imaging.

Dive Insight:

A white paper from Lockton Companies outlines why evidence-based treatment plans are more effective in treating low back and other pain-intensive injuries.

Keith Rosenblum, a senior strategist for Workers' Compensation Risk Control in Lockton's Kansas City office and the white paper co-author, says medical imaging can result in overdiagnosis, when a physician labels a condition more serious than it truly is, attributing a usually benign condition to more serious causes than the scientific data and situation warrant.

"Diagnosing patients' complaints based more on evidence-based medicine and less on imaging studies, where not recommended, will make a substantial impact on the cost of claims," said Rosenblum. "Most importantly, it will avoid many cases of unnecessary disability for working Americans."