Cost Effectiveness in Pain Care

The receipts behind Chapter 18

A retired bookkeeper brought me a fusion proposal and four years of every bill her back had generated, and asked which one was the expensive one. It was the four-dollar bottle of ibuprofen. In Chapter 18 I price a year of health, give the surgeon’s case its real numbers, show what a fusion costs against a decompression, and lay out the order that keeps the years: blood before scan, block before burn, bridge before fusion.

The book makes the argument. This supplement shows the evidence, claim by claim: the study, who was in it, the number and where it sits in the paper, what it does not show — and the questions to bring to your own physician. It is written to be handed to your doctor.

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Educational material. Not medical advice. If you are in the St. Louis area and want this looked at properly, that is what the Padda Institute is for.