Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine Target Lower Back Pain (Management of low back pain among Medicaid beneficiaries: modalities, patterns, and perspectives across states): Musculoskeletal Diseases and Conditions – Lower Back Pain

2025 OCT 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A new study on Musculoskeletal Diseases and Conditions - Lower Back Pain is now available. According to news reporting originating in New York City, New York, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide and Medicaid beneficiaries are disproportionally impacted. No studies have comprehensively examined patterns of treatment among Medicaid beneficiaries with low back pain.”

Funders for this research include National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, NIH HEAL Initiative, HEAL Data2Action Program.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Weill Cornell Medicine, “We quantitatively described modalities of treatment and low-value care received following a low back pain diagnosis among Medicaid beneficiaries across the United States. We then qualitatively explored factors that influence treatment patterns by interviewing chronic pain experts. On average, 39.6% of patients received a prescription opioid in the 12 months following diagnosis and 41.2% received conservative therapies-noninvasive, nonpharmacological methods including physical, manual, or psychological therapies. Prescription nonopioid analgesic medications were the most common modality received first (57.8%) and across the 12 months following diagnosis (74.1%). On average, 8.9% of patients received high-dose, long-term opioid therapy (>120 morphine milligram equivalents/d for 90 days) and 31.7% received early imaging; both indicators for low-value care. Chronic pain experts highlighted challenges related to Medicaid coverage for conservative therapies, limited access to pain specialists, and social and economic factors influencing treatment access and utilization.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Barriers, including Medicaid coverage limitations, provider access challenges, and economic factors, likely impact patterns of low back pain treatment among individuals enrolled in Medicaid.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Management of low back pain among Medicaid beneficiaries: modalities, patterns, and perspectives across states. Health Affairs Scholar, 2025;3(9).

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Christie Lee Luo, Dept. of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10022, United States. Additional authors for this research include Kayla N. Tormohlen, Anam Ahsan, Brian C. Coleman, Patience M. Dow, William C. Becker, Tamara Haegerich and Emma E. McGinty.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxaf180. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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