Insurers May At Last Begin Meeting The Cost Of Gastric Bypass Surgery
Enquire of any experienced bariatric surgeon whether gastric bypass surgery reduces a patient’s risk of premature death and he will tell you without any hesitation that it does. Indeed, he will probably be surprised that you have asked the question in the first place as surgeons have known for years that weight loss surgery extends a patient’s life.
But, put this same question to a number of insurance companies and you could well get a very different answer because, until quite recently, although there has been a lot of anecdotal evidence for what everyone knows to be the position, there has been no concrete, hard numerical proof.
Today however the results of 2 studies have clearly shown in quantifiable terms that gastric bypass surgery has a significant effect on the death rates of those concerned.
In the first, a multi-center United States study involving 16,000 patients followed for 7 years, long-term death rates dropped by as much as 40 percent. Additionally a second study in Sweden involving 4,000 patients showed a 29 percent fall in death rates.
For many years now insurers have wanted to put hurdles in the path of patients to prevent them from submitting claims for gastric bypass surgery and this has been gaining momentum in recent years as the number of weight loss operations being performed has risen dramatically and gastric bypass surgery has become increasingly acceptable with a number of celebrities such as Al Rocker, Renee Williams, Star Jones and others undergoing bariatric surgery.
Insurers have however stuck strictly to the line that gastric bypass surgery ought only to be used as a last resort and that all possible efforts to lose weight through exercise and diet, including if necessary the use of medication, must be exhausted before gastric bypass surgery is considered. In addition, they have also insisted that gastric bypass surgery can only finally be undertaken if weight poses a risk to life.
For many people this position by the insurance companies is seen as being totally ridiculous and a position which they have clearly adopted simply to save the insurance company money. Like it or not, despite this view, the insurance companies have been able to get away with this for years now because it has not been possible to show in terms of facts and figures that gastric bypass surgery is not simply a convenient and relatively easy way to lose weight but is the only option open to many sufferers and an option which will not only greatly improve their quality of life but quite literally extend their lives, frequently quite significantly.
For years overweight individuals have fought with their weight and, although some have experienced limited success, most people (and undoubtedly those who are faced with losing in excess of about 80 pounds) have discovered that exercise and diet quite simply does not work. Despite this fact, they have had no choice and doctors have been forced to lead them down this path because of the position of the insurance companies.
Perhaps now at long last the insurance companies are going to be forced to face up to their responsibility in this area and at long last put the needs of their policyholders ahead of those of their shareholders and start to meet some if not all of the cost of gastric bypass surgery.
