Less surgery and lower cost due to back pain in a care program with an interdisciplinary second opinion procedure : A controlled non-randomized intervention study based on claims data

There is no evidence of effectiveness for interdisciplinary second opinion procedures (ISOP) for recommended back surgery (BS). Since 2015, AOK Nordost has been offering the care program RückenSPEZIAL comprising a preliminary examination, ISOP, and optional interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy (IMPT). The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of RückenSPEZIAL to reduce BS and back pain-related costs (BPRC) compared to patients who likewise received a recommendation for back surgery but not RückenSPEZIAL. Insured persons in the AOK Nordost consulted the AOK service center, presented a BS hospital admission slip and received advice to participate in RückenSPEZIAL. Following a 1:1 "matched pairs" selection, patients who participated in RückenSPEZIAL (intervention group [IG]) after this consultation (reference date) where compared with patients who did not participate after this consultation (comparison group [CG]). Patient characteristics, BS and BPRC were operationalised from AOK Nordost claims data. Of 108 IG patients and 108 CG patients, 34 (42%) fewer IG patients had one or more BS in 365 following days (relative risk [RR] 0.58; p