Medicare wants limits for weight loss surgery

Reuters/Yahoo News, November 18, 2008

Medicare has announced it does not plan to cover weight-loss surgery in diabetic patients who are not dangerously overweight, saying there is not enough evidence to show it can improve their health. Medicare and some private insurers already pay for the surgery, which ranges from $15,000 to $35,000 for more complicated gastric bypass, for severely obese people. But the agency said it will evaluate whether to expand the coverage after a small study found the surgery can completely reverse type 2 diabetes.