Public Reporting of MRI of the Lumbar Spine for Low Back Pain and Changes in Clinical Documentation

Documentation of excluding conditions and other clinically reasonable exclusions for OP-8 increased over time for outpatient hospitals and clinics. Increases in documentation of comorbidities may not translate to actual improvement in imaging appropriateness for low back pain. When accounting for all relevant conditions, the proportion of patients with low back pain considered uncomplicated and being measured by OP-8 would be small, reflecting a small proportion of patients with low back pain.