3 stories this morning, for surgeons and the people who support them.
- UnitedHealthcare drops prior authorization on 1,700 codes effective October 1, including fracture care, joint injections and arthroscopies — Reported September 2, 2026: UnitedHealthcare sent providers a memo removing prior authorization from roughly 1,700 codes, about 30% of its current preapproval volume, effective October 1, 2026, across commercial, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, ACA exchange and Oxford plans (breakdown: 800+ commercial codes, ~940 ACA codes, ~120 MA/dual-SNP codes, 1,400 Oxford codes; Medicaid varies by state). Orthopedic/musculoskeletal procedures affected include fracture treatment, joint injections and arthroscopies, alongside lesion excisions, endoscopies, biopsies, hernia repairs and soft tissue tumor removals in other specialties. UnitedHealthcare cites services with proven clinical efficacy and consistently high approval rates. Context: this follows the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which triggered industry-wide scrutiny of prior authorization, plus CMS and Trump administration pressure on carriers to reform the process. This is a UnitedHealthcare-specific policy, not an industry-wide change; Aetna and Cigna are on separate timelines. Source
- CurvaFix presents real-world data on its first 3,800 pelvic intramedullary nails at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association's 2026 meeting — CurvaFix, described as the first and only intramedullary nail system designed specifically for the pelvis, is presenting real-world outcomes from its first 3,800 implants placed by more than 200 surgeons, in a session at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association's 2026 Annual Meeting in Nashville on Thursday, September 24, 7:00-7:50am CDT. Brett Crist, MD (University of Missouri) is presenting removal-rate data: overall removal rate 1.45%, in vivo implant breakage 0.03%, implant backout 0.05%, malpositioning 0.24%. Nicholas Quercetti, DO is presenting separately on pubic symphysis fixation technique using the same system. Seven published clinical articles support immediate weight-bearing and early ambulation after fixation. This is company-sponsored real-world registry data, not a randomized trial. Source
- Theragen presents predictive-analytics data on its ActaStim-S bone growth stimulator at the SMISS 2026 Annual Forum — Presented September 23, 2026 at the Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery's Annual Forum: Theragen used machine-learning models (XGBoost and logistic regression) on real-world data from nearly 7,000 patients and approximately 195,000 days of recovery data, integrating its ActaStim-S wearable bone growth stimulator's adherence logs with EMR data (99.2% device-to-EMR data completeness), to identify predictors of six-week and six-month pain improvement after spinal fusion. Device adherence was the strongest modifiable predictor, with benefit plateauing around 13 hours of daily wear; wear time below that at six weeks postop was flagged as a marker for additional monitoring. Degenerative disc disease, diabetes and renal disease were associated with six-week improvement; ALIF was associated with six-month improvement. Multilevel fusion, TLIF, pseudarthrosis, tobacco use and spinal stenosis were associated with persistent pain. The model reached 96.4% negative predictive value for identifying patients unlikely to achieve clinically meaningful pain improvement. This is company-sponsored data presented at a specialty meeting, not a peer-reviewed publication. Source
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