Gastric Bypass

Gastric bypass surgery is being used more and more often as Americans continue to gain weight.

In 2002, 63,000 weight-loss operations were performed in the United States, according to The American Society for Bariatric Surgery.

The number of weight loss surgeries will continue to go up as more and more people become dangerously obese, and as more health insurance companies add weight loss surgery to their benefits.

Bariatric surgery can have great benefits, but it also can have great risks. For that reason the North American Association for the Study of Obesity advises that this weight loss surgery should only be considered if:

Some insurance policies now cover this procedure, but there will usually be strict pre-treatment requirements. Prospective patients may be required to attend nutritional and psychological counseling for six-months prior to approval of the operation, and they will be asked to lose up to 8% of their current body weight prior to the gastric bypass surgery.

These requirement help to assure the surgeons and the insurance companies that the procedure will be successful. Most insurance will only cover one weight loss surgery in a patient's lifetime.

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