Cost of Gastric Bypass Surgery

If you’re considering gastric bypass surgery, the cost of gastric bypass surgery has to be a major determining factor.   There are truly many possible considerations when contemplating a surgery with this level of risk and uncertainty of results; unfortunately in this day and age you must consider the sizable cost of gastric bypass surgery in addition to the medical reasoning for the surgery.   The minimum amount you should expect the surgery to cost is $25,000, and in many cases it can run upwards of $35,000.  Just like with most surgical procedures this fee is made up of components such as the hospital fee, surgeon’s fee, anesthesia, lab fees, any medical products used during the surgery and other miscellaneous fees. 

Though we often hear the term ‘gastric bypass surgery’ and assume it is only one type of procedure, it is actually a more general term for a type of operation that treats extreme obesity by reducing the “functional volume”, or capacity, of the stomach.  Gastric bypass surgery is itself a subsection of a more general class of surgery known as bariatric surgery, which is an extremely general term for any type of surgery to treat extreme obesity that usually involves the limiting of food that the patient can eat in one manner or another.   

A gastric bypass surgery consists of the surgeon dividing the stomach into two parts: a very small upper section and a larger lower section.  The surgery crucially hinges on the doctor rearranging the small intestine to allow both of these sections to be connected.  This connection to the intestines is where many of the gastric bypass surgeries differ, and thus the difference in types of surgeries available such as Roux-en-Y, biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch, and Lap-Band adjustable gastric banding.  The entire concept is that your stomach will be significantly smaller after the surgery and your psychological and physiological response to food will be altered in such a way that you can lose massive amounts of weight and keep it off permanently.    

If you’re looking for a gastric bypass surgeon, the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery is a good place to start looking, as it has a list of “Centers of Excellence” that denotes the top clinics and surgeons in the country. 

As previously discussed, the costs of gastric bypass surgery can be significant. And that’s not even taking into account the cost of the nutritionist you’ll likely need to see post-surgery or the psychologist that you will be recommended to see after the surgery (as most of us intuitively understand, obesity is as much a disease of the mind as it is of the body).

The most important thing you can do regarding the costs of gastric bypass surgery is to get in touch with your insurance company as early in the process as possible. It’s very likely that some or all of the procedure will be covered by insurance, especially if it is deemed medically necessary by your doctor. Because we’re talking about tens of thousands of dollars, you don’t want to be surprised when the bill comes and your insurance company tells you that they aren’t paying for any of it. Get everything in writing and fully understand what specifically will be covered and what won’t and you’ll be well on your way to having a successful surgery.