Insurance companies and other payers for health care often change protocols over what services will be covered under a given insurance policy. These policies have the potential to impact patient care, by denying coverage for some treatment options. By denying coverage, physician choice of what may be best for their patients is limited.

Joseph Cheng developed the Rapid Response Team to answer these concerns and to provide a working group to respond to insurance

industry policy. The foundation of the team was reviewed by Kurt Eichholz in a previous edition of the Section newsletter: http://www.spinesection.org/files/pdfs/newsletters/spinenews1011.pdf

By noting that a given procedure is “experimental” an insurance company deems that it is investigational as well, and therefore not medically necessary. This obviates the need for the insurer to cover the procedure for their covered members.