Doctors may prescribe Bone Growth Therapy, commonly known as bone growth stimulation, for patients who are experiencing bone healing complications or exhibit risk factors that can impede healing. If you are concerned that your fracture or spinal fusion is not healing or if you have reason to believe that you have a risk factor that will make it difficult for you to heal, it is important to speak with your doctor, who can diagnose your condition and prescribe treatment.

Physicians may prescribe a bone growth therapy device when a patient has poor bone healing. Common bone healing risk factors include:

• Smoking/tobacco use.
• Diabetes.
• Obesity.
• Multilevel fusions.
• Medication that depletes bone.
• Spondylolisthesis (Grade 2+).
• Allograft (bone graft) use.

The healing process itself determines the duration of the treatment, and your physician will closely monitor your progress. Your individual risk factors (such as smoking, multi-level fusion, and graft type) and your compliance in wearing the device will factor into the duration of your treatment. To promote your healing, it is very important that you wear the bone growth therapy device daily as prescribed. Your doctor may require that you bring your unit in on your follow-up visits to check your compliance. Most patients wear the device between three and nine months.

Even if an item is considered medically necessary and, therefore, covered by insurance, some health insurers require you to pay a portion of the cost. These costs could include a deductible, co-payment or other co-insurance amount. For Medicare patients, the co-insurance amount for a bone growth stimulator is generally 20% of the Medicare allowable amount. For patients with other health insurance, the co-insurance amount varies by insurer.