The Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to providing information about the costs and utilization of healthcare in the U.S., recently issued a policy lowering health care costs for physical therapy.

“Lowering barriers to physical therapy decreases the odds that people with low back pain will end up in emergency rooms, use imaging, and have opioid prescriptions,” said the Health Care Cost Institute.

This new policy allows Medicaid patients access to physical therapy and other therapies for low back pain, in hopes of reducing the number of people dependent on opioids.

Around 40% of those suffering from long-term low back pain do not see physical therapists, so this new policy could encourage them to get help sooner rather than later.

According to The Bulletin, low back pain is the most common pain in the United States, with 25% of the entire population reporting at least one day of pain over the last three months.

The Health Care Cost Institute study analyzed beneficiary claims for six Northwest states, looking at data from three different types of patients: those who never saw a physical therapist, those who saw a physical therapist later on, and those who immediately received physical therapy treatment.

“The findings from this study suggest that seeing a physical therapist as the first point of care compared to seeing a physical therapist at a later point in time reduces utilization of potentially costly services,” the HCCI stated, according toRevcycle Intelligence.

The study also found a significant decrease in visits to the emergency department, imaging, and opioid prescriptions.

“People want a quick solution to their pain,” said Bianca Frogner, director of the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies. “You can probably get an appointment faster with some of these people than you can your primary-care provider.”

The Health Care Cost Institute was launched in Washington, DC in 2011 to collect and analyze data on health care spending across the United States.