Insurance Can Effect Weight-Loss Surgery Results
Posted on: Monday, 1 June 2009, 14:35 CDT
U.S. researchers said on Monday that people with private health insurance lose more weight after having weight-loss surgery than those covered by the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, Reuters reported.
They said Medicare patients tend to weigh more before having gastric bypass surgery and are more likely to be depressed and suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol and sleep apnea.
Such patients may need extra exercise and nutrition support in order to succeed, researchers said.
Dr. John Morton of Stanford University School of Medicine in California, who presented his findings at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in Chicago, said gastric bypass surgery is very successful and that the medical community should work to ensure that everyone has the same chance at success.
Gastric bypass surgery works by altering the digestive tract to reduce the volume of food that can be eaten and digested and is fast becoming an increasingly popular treatment for obesity.
Medicare, the federal health plan for 44 million elderly and disabled Americans, often helps pay for the surgery along with the help of large insurance companies. The surgery can range from $15,000 to $35,000 for severely obese people.
Morton and colleagues collected data on 750 gastric bypass patients with private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, a state-federal insurance program for the poor.
Morton and colleagues found that all patients had significant weight loss a year after surgery, but the patients with private insurance lost more.
"The Medicare group lost 57 percent of its excess weight, but in comparison with the private insurance group, this was much less, with the private insurance group losing about 82 percent of their extra weight," he said.
Slightly higher complication rates were noted in the Medicare group, but there were no reported deaths from any of the procedures.
Medicare group patients had the biggest reductions in levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol that causes heart disease, Morton said.
Additionally, they showed bigger improvements in fasting insulin, a measure of diabetes severity.
Those in the Medicare group started out much heavier than other patients, with average body mass index scores of nearly 50, putting them in the so-called super-obese category.
The study shows that some Medicare patients are starting with more profound disadvantages, and may need more support, Morton said.
With morbid obesity being the leading public health crisis in the United States, bariatric surgery is the only effective treatment for many patients.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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