Insurance and Obesity Surgery

The treatment of obesity is a covered benefit under many insurance policies. Coverage depends on what type of policy you have and the terms within the policy.

Each insurance policy can vary greatly, even when issued by the same company. Your employer dictates the coverage in your policy.

Many insurance companies will pay for gastric bypass surgery if you meet certain conditions.

However, many other insurance companies have “Exclusion” clauses for treating obesity. These companies refuse to cover any treatment related to "losing weight." They will only treat the diseases caused by excessive body weight.

Unfortunately, many policies have “Exclusions” written into them. This means that even though the treatment may be “Medically Necessary”, it is not a covered benefit. Patients with BMI below 45 are less likely to get approved.

Diabetes and Obesity – New research in Brazil

Poorly managed type 2 diabetes costs the U.S. health system an extra US$22.9 billion a year in direct medical costs to treat heart, eye, kidney and other serious health problems associated with the disease, diabetes groups reported yesterday.
Annual health costs for a type 2 diabetic are three times that of the average American without diagnosed diabetes, according to a new report called State of Diabetes Complications in America.
About 20.8 million Americans have diabetes, which causes about 5% of all deaths globally each year.
Most have type 2, or adult-onset diabetes, in which the body loses its ability to use insulin.
Obesity and lack of exercise are linked with type 2 diabetes, which can cause blindness, heart disease, stroke, chronic kidney disease and foot problems that can require amputations.

Gastric Bypass Obesity Surgery cures diabetes type 2 in almost all patients within a short period of time after obesity surgery.

It is different with type 1 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, a person’s immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Preserving beta cells is a key concept in the management of type 1 diabetes and in the prevention of its related complications.

In a small study, a treatment that included stem cell transplantation induced prolonged insulin independence in patients with newly diagnosed type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes. In a statement, lead author Dr. Julio C. Voltarelli, from the Regional Blood Centre in Ribeiro Preto, Brazil, called the results “very encouraging”. While the same approach has been used in other autoimmune disorders, the current study, to the author’s knowledge, represents the first time the approach has been used in human type 1 diabetes.