Arkansas panel OKs weight-loss surgery bill

State’s program up for extension

The health plans for public school and state employees would continue covering weight-loss surgeries until at least the end of 2021 under a bill that cleared a Senate committee Wednesday.

Senate Bill 522, sponsored by Sen. Eddie Cheatham, D-Crossett, would extend a pilot project that started in 2012 as the result of a law passed a year earlier.

Presenting the bill to the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, Cheatham noted that the surgeries are recommended by the American Diabetes Association for certain patients with Type II diabetes.

"They're encouraging that as a way to bring these people back to normal life," Cheatham said.

According to a study by the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, the plans, which cover about 45,000 public school employees and about 26,000 state employees, spent a total of $9 million on 775 surgeries from 2012-16.

The covered procedures include gastric sleeve, gastric bypass and gastric band surgeries, all of which reduce the size of the stomach.

Of 282 people who had the surgeries in 2012 or 2013 and completed a survey in 2015, 178 reported a height and weight in 2015 indicating they were obese, the study found.

However, 92 of those who were obese had a body-mass index below 35, which was the minimum required for a health plan member to be eligible for the surgery. Someone with a body mass index of 30 or above is considered obese.

The study also found that, a year after the surgery, the annual medical costs for members who had the surgery in 2012 or 2013 averaged $3,599, compared with an annual cost of $3,964 the year before the surgery.

Josh Mourot, a bariatric surgeon based in Fayetteville, told the committee that a growing number of large employers are covering the surgeries.

The health plan covering University of Arkansas System campus employees began covering the surgeries this year, system spokesman Nate Hinkel said after the meeting.

SB522 would keep in place annual caps on the surgeries of $3 million for the state employee and public school plans. It also would allow the state board that governs the plans to suspend or discontinue the program if necessary to protect the health plans' finances.

The bill was recommended for approval in a voice vote. Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, the only member to vote against approval, said research on the effectiveness of the surgeries is mixed.

He said the state should do more analysis on the effects of the surgeries that have been conducted before deciding whether to reauthorize the program.

"We need to round out our understanding of the impact here," he said.

Metro on 03/16/2017

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