Weight-Loss Surgery May Not Cut Medical Costs: Study

HealthDay – 2 hrs 1 min ago TUESDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- Although patients do indeed lose weight after bariatric surgery, health-care costs remain about the same as they were before the procedure, according to a new study.

Bariatric surgery reduces the size of the stomach, which results in significant weight loss. Most patients in the new study had undergone a procedure called Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

Previous studies had shown that many obese people who have this procedure improve their health and reduce the cost of their care. In this group of patients, however, costs did not go down, the researchers said.

"These three-year findings suggest that the return on investment for bariatric surgery isn't seen," said lead researcher Matthew Maciejewski, from the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at the Durham VA Medical Center, in North Carolina.

"It is possible, however, that if we could follow these

View the Original article