Back injured on job? State says surgery won't be first option

COLUMBUS - Out of concern for contributing to the opioid addiction epidemic in the state, the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation says it will no longer approve back surgery as a first line of treatment.
According to Dr. Stephen Woods, the bureau's chief medical officer, and researcher at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, patients who underwent fusion surgeries faced worse outcomes than those who did not.
Dr. Woods says patients who had surgery were more likely to develop o