An LSU Pennington Biomedical study found that Americans with severe obesity are undergoing fewer surgical procedures. Senior author of the study, Dr. Vance Albaugh, said extreme obesity can predispose patients to knee or hip replacements, heart disease and other health issues that require operation. Despite rising national obesity rates, these individuals are undergoing fewer operations.
“We don’t think that these people are not needing surgery,” said Albaugh. “It’s just that they’re not getting the surgery that they probably need because of their obesity.”
Albaugh said one cause of this trend could be insurance coverage. He says many insurance plans do not cover bariatric surgeries or GLP-1 medications to help with extreme weight loss.
“He said, Even though they might want to get their weight down, they don’t have the tools that enable them to help get that much weight off, and then they never end up having surgery in the first place.”
In 2024, the Louisiana Legislature and Governor Landry passed a law requiring commercial health insurance plans to include coverage for bariatric surgery. The law was supposed to go into effect in January of 2025, but Albaugh said it has yet to be enacted.
“There is a great need here in Louisiana to really have access to these powerful obesity treatments, and it’s not only the obesity that we’re treating; it’s the diabetes, the high blood pressure, the heart disease, the fatty liver disease,” said Albaugh.