Drugs such as Wegovy may help reduce waistlines, but they do not lower medical costs, according to an analysis of U.S. health insurance claims shared with Reuters. These findings align with research by DPHS Associate Professor Valerie Smith, DrPH, published in the Annals of Surgery, which also revealed that bariatric surgery patients did not experience a decrease in overall long-term expenses despite having lower medication costs compared to matched controls.
Read Health Expenditures After Bariatric Surgery
Other DPHS contributors to this publication include Lindsay Zepel, MS; Caroline Sloan, MD, MPH; Amy Clark, PhD; and Matthew Maciejewski, PhD.