Prior posts have discussed the fact that, for those who lose weight and maintain that weight loss, bariatric surgery can alleviate diabetes. Our previous post looked specifically at the significant costs associated with the disease.
Despite the high cost of treating diabetes, some may wonder – health and lifestyle benefits of alleviating the disease aside – if the cost of bariatric surgery can be recouped. According to research by the Analysis Group, a firm with more than 500 professionals and offices throughout the country, the answer is, “Yes.”
The organization’s 2008 research, “A Study on the Economic Impact of Bariatric Surgery,” demonstrated that, depending on the type of surgery performed, insurers recover their costs for bariatric surgery in only two to four years. The exhaustive study, which utilized an administrative claims database of 8.5 million cases from 1999 to 2007, also showed that health care costs were less for obese patients with diabetes treated with bariatric surgery than for patients undergoing traditional therapy.
The Analysis Group recently distributed a release discussing the significant economic benefits of bariatric surgery, citing data presented at Obesity 2010, the 28th annual scientific meeting of The Obesity Society, as well as Analysis Group’s 2008 study.
In the release, Pierre Cremieux, Ph.D., a health economic expert and managing principal at Analysis Group, says, “We identified obese patients with diabetes who were treated with bariatric surgery and compared their post-surgery health care costs, diabetes diagnosis claims, and diabetes medication claims with matched non-surgery control patients. The data show surgical therapy to be clinically effective, and ultimately less expensive, than leaving these patients on standard therapy.”
As the evidence continues to mount in favor of bariatric surgery for alleviating diabetes, we encourage you to attend one of our free seminars to see if bariatric surgery is right for you.