March 13, 2024
The MSK money pit: where benefits budgets go to die
MSK care is quietly wrecking healthcare budgets — and most solutions aren’t fixing it. Download the full white paper to understand the hidden drivers of spend and what to do instead.
Traditional MSK care is broken — and it’s bleeding money from your benefits budget. With outdated care models, over-reliance on surgery and imaging, and perverse incentives baked into the system, MSK has become a runaway cost category. And most solutions don’t stop the spiral — they just put it on pause.
This paper breaks down:
- Why MSK care is uniquely expensive and hard to fix
- How current solutions fail to deliver long-term savings
- What employers and health plans can do differently — and what to avoid
$420B
Annual MSK spend in the U.S. — more than cancer, diabetes, or heart disease
50%
of chronic pain-related surgeries are avoidable
70%
of all surgeries are MSK-related
$30k
Average cost of a single spine surgery
Download the full white paper to understand the cost traps driving MSK overspend — and what smarter care models can do to stop it.
Contributors to White Paper
Sword Team
Experts in pain, movement, and digital health
