The Hidden Cost of Chronic Pain: Why Treating It Early Matters

Chronic pain doesn’t just impact the person experiencing it. It impacts families, workplaces, and healthcare systems. It’s one of the most widespread and costly conditions in the U.S., yet it’s also one of the most delayed in treatment.

Too often, people wait months or years before getting help for musculoskeletal (MSK) pain. They try to push through it, rest it off, or mask it with over-the-counter painkillers. By the time they seek medical intervention, the condition has often progressed to the point where surgery or advanced imaging seems inevitable.

But the earlier we intervene, the better the outcomes and the lower the cost.

Delayed Treatment Leads to Escalation

Chronic MSK pain rarely resolves on its own. In fact, avoiding care can set off a cascade of clinical and economic consequences:

• Increased use of diagnostic imaging (like MRIs or CT scans)
• More prescriptions, including opioids
• Higher risk of surgeries
• Loss of workdays and productivity
• Greater emotional strain and mental health impact

A study published in JAMA Network Open found that the average cost of treating chronic low back pain increased substantially for patients who delayed care and often resulted in more invasive procedures and long-term medication use¹.

By contrast, early conservative care—particularly when it’s biomechanically targeted—can change the course of pain altogether.

The Case for Early Biomechanical Intervention

Biomechanical dysfunction is a root cause of many chronic pain cases, especially involving the knees, hips, and lower back. When movement patterns become inefficient or misaligned, they place stress on certain joints and soft tissues, leading to inflammation, degeneration, and eventually, chronic pain.

But the good news is this: biomechanics can be corrected.

Apos® is an at-home, FDA-cleared treatment that targets pain through movement. Worn on the feet for about an hour a day, it shifts pressure away from painful areas and retrains the body to move in a healthier, more efficient way.

And it’s most effective when used early.

In a peer-reviewed study from Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, patients who used Apos® soon after chronic MSK symptoms began were able to avoid surgery entirely, reduce healthcare utilization by 81%, and achieve substantial pain and function improvements over 20 months².

Lowering Costs, Improving Lives

The cost savings from early intervention aren’t just hypothetical. They’re real and measurable. Consider this:

• In the same study, not a single patient in the Apos®-treated group underwent knee surgery during the study period
• Utilization of injections, imaging, and specialist referrals dropped significantly
• Patient-reported quality of life improved across multiple dimensions, including mobility and daily activity³

These outcomes weren’t achieved through aggressive interventions or burdensome programs. They were achieved through a device worn at home during daily activity, making therapy easy to start, easy to stick with, and easy to scale across populations.

Pain Is Easier to Treat Before It Becomes Chronic

Research in neurobiology also supports early intervention. The longer pain persists, the more deeply it embeds in the nervous system—a phenomenon known as central sensitization⁴. Early movement-based therapies can help disrupt that process, reducing the risk of long-term dysfunction and disability.

In other words: the earlier we act, the easier pain is to treat.

From Reacting to Preventing

If we continue to treat chronic pain only after it becomes unmanageable, we’ll continue to lose ground…to avoidable procedures, higher costs, and diminished quality of life.

But if we intervene earlier, with smarter tools that address the real mechanics of pain, we can reduce suffering and costs in one move.

Apos® offers a proven pathway to do just that.

Learn how Apos® helps reduce long-term cost and improve outcomes at aposhealth.com

Sources

1. Fritz JM, Magel JS, McFadden M, et al. Early physical therapy vs usual care in patients with recent-onset low back pain: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2015;314(14):1459–1467.
2. Bar-Ziv Y, Ran Y, Shidlovski A, et al. Value-based care for musculoskeletal pain: real-world outcomes using a foot-worn device in a large, risk-bearing provider network. JHEOR. 2024;11(1):24–33.
3. Elbaz A, Mor A, Segal G, et al. A unique foot-worn device for treating knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial. J Clin Med. 2020;9(2):542.
4. Woolf CJ. Central sensitization: implications for the diagnosis and treatment of pain. Pain. 2011;152(3 Suppl):S2–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2010.09.030