Mean Total Health Care, Physical Therapy, and Patient Out-of-Pocket Costs per Episode of Carea Based on Low Back Quality Initiative Management Protocol Adherence
↵a An episode of care was defined as the time from the initial physical therapy evaluation to the last physical therapy visit. If there were no physical therapy visits for >60 days from the last visit, the episode of care was considered complete. Low back pain management costs were captured for 18 months from the start date of a complete episode of care.
b Total payer costs were defined as all allowed medical, physical therapy, and prescription expenditures paid by the health plan for low back pain management.
c A 4% discount rate adjustment was applied to all expenditures to account for market inflation.
d No significance observed (P<.05).
e All comparisons made with cost data transformed by [log (10)].
f Total member costs were defined as all allowed medical, physical therapy, and prescription expenditures paid by the member for low back pain management.
g Total physical therapy costs were defined as all allowed physical therapy expenditures paid by the health plan for low back pain management.
h Physical therapy member costs were defined as all allowed physical therapy expenditures paid by the member for low back pain management.
i 95% CI=95% confidence interval.