State To Slim Weight-Loss Surgery Options
March 3, 2008
The Spitzer administration is cracking down on the number of hospitals that perform weight-loss surgery, an increasingly popular procedure performed in more than a dozen hospitals citywide.
Citing quality control and cost, the state will restrict how many institutions may perform bariatric surgery, even as the number of patients seeking the surgery nationwide and in New York City has grown exponentially in recent years.
State health officials said they plan to use their “selective contracting” authority to limit Medicaid reimbursement for such surgeries to five hospitals in New York City. Currently, 27 hospitals in the city perform bariatric surgery, in which doctors reduce the size of a patient’s stomach to limit the amount of food that can be consumed.
“Through our purchasing authority, we can purchase high-quality, cost-efficient care, and that’s the driver,” the state’s Medicaid director, Deborah Bachrach, said. The state plans to issue a request for proposals and select the five hospitals by this fall.
The state also plans to limit the contracts awarded to hospitals that perform breast cancer surgery, but officials outlined far looser guidelines for the selective contracting for that procedure and said the state would reimburse hospitals that perform at least 30 procedures annually.
Source: NY Sun read the full story here
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