A passenger waits for a delayed flight at Heathrow airport's terminal four in London August 12, 2006. REUTERS/Toby Melville  The findings show that bariatric surgery, an increasingly  popular operation, benefits patients’ health and saves money,  according to Pierre-Yves Cremieux of the economic consulting  firm Analysis Group and the University of Quebec at Montreal,  who led the study. Bariatric surgery alters the digestive system’s anatomy,  reducing the volume of food that can be eaten and digested. The  most common form is gastric bypass, which makes the stomach  smaller and permits food to bypass part of the small intestine. Some insurers have been reluctant to cover this surgery. “It demonstrates the fact that this is not cosmetic  surgery,” Cremieux said in a telephone interview. “The reason why you get your money back when you cover  bariatric surgery is because the patients who were morbidly  obese before and had high rates of diabetes and hypertension no  longer do. They don’t go to the doctor as much as they used to,  and they don’t go to the emergency room as much as they used  to. Why? Because they are healthier,” Cremieux added. How quickly an insurer recovered the costs of paying for  bariatric surgery depended on the type performed, Cremieux  reported in the American Journal of Managed Care. Insurers fully recovered the expense of covering minimally  invasive bariatric surgery, which on average cost $17,000,  within about two years, the study showed. They fully recovered the expense of more common bariatric  procedures such as traditional gastric bypass surgery, which on  average cost $26,000, within about four years. After surgery, the obese patients lost weight and incurred  lower costs associated with prescription drugs, doctor visits  and hospital services as they became healthier and less  burdened by chronic disease, the researchers said. The researchers based the findings on insurance claims  filed by 3,651 morbidly obese bariatric surgery patients and  insurance claims filed by an equal number of morbidly obese  people who did not have weight-loss surgery. It spanned six months of pre-surgical evaluation and care,  the operation and up to five years of post-surgical care. Those  who did not have surgery also were tracked for five years. The average age of the surgical patients was 44 and most  were women. They began the study with obesity-related ailments  like high blood pressure, diabetes and sleep apnea. Previous research has found that obese people who have  weight-loss surgery are less likely to die from heart disease,  diabetes and cancer than obese people who do not have such  surgery. An estimated 205,000 people had bariatric surgery in  the United States last year. The study was funded by Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon  Endo-Surgery division, which makes instruments for bariatric  surgery.
Insurers recoup obesity surgery cost in 2-4 years.