Endocrine Insider
April 1, 2009

Last week, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour signed House Bill 1530 which adds a new health coverage benefit to state and school employee health plans. The bill provides for the treatment and management of obesity and related conditions through various methods, including, but not limited to, bariatric surgery. In order for patients to qualify for bariatric surgery, they must have a BMI greater than 40, or greater than 35 plus 2 co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, among others. Patients must also have documentation by their primary practitioner of two previous weight loss attempts that did not result in success. In addition to the bariatric surgery benefit, the bill also provides new resources to track the savings incurred by treating obesity, such as savings associated with the resolution or improvement of obesity-related co-morbidities.

The Endocrine Society, along with the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), and the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) and others, provided support for the legislation and encouraged Governor Barbour to sign House Bill 1530. View the Society’s letter to Governor Barbour here.

Earlier this year The Endocrine Society and its partners, ASMBS, the American College of Surgeons (ACS), and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), met with staff from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to ask the agency to broaden the group of patients eligible under a proposed national coverage determination (NCD) on bariatric surgery. Unfortunately, CMS chose not to alter its proposal and the NCD went into effect without the Society’s recommended changes. The Endocrine Society is pleased to see states such as Mississippi taking the initiative to provide important coverage for obesity treatment, including bariatric surgery.