Using an administrative claims database of privately insured patients covering 8.5 million lives 1999 “2007 at 40 large nationwide companies, the researchers identified obese patients with diabetes, 18 to 65 years old who were treated with bariatric surgery, using Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System codes. These patients were matched with non-surgery control patients on demographic factors, comorbidities and healthcare costs. The overall return on investment associated with bariatric surgery was calculated using multivariate analysis, and surgery and control patients were compared post-index with respect to diagnostic claims for diabetes, diabetes medication claims, and adjusted diabetes medication and supply costs. Specific findings of the study include:

At six months post-surgery, 28 percent of surgery patients had a diabetes diagnosis, compared to 74 percent of control patients (P < 0.001).At three months post-surgery, insulin use (among pre-index insulin users) dropped to 43 percent for surgery patients vs. 84 percent for controls (P < 0.001).At one month post-surgery, medication and supply costs were significantly lower for surgery patients (P < 0.001).

This research comes in the wake of Analysis Group's 2008 research, "A Study on the Economic Impact of Bariatric Surgery," which also demonstrated that healthcare costs for morbidly obese patients receiving bariatric surgery dropped while costs for morbidly obese patients who did not have surgery continued to rise. That study also provided evidence that insurers recover their costs for bariatric surgery in two to four years, depending on the type of surgery performed.

SOURCE Analysis Group