Gastric Sleeve Surgery or Sleeve Gastrectomy (SG), has quickly grown into one of the most reliable weight loss procedures to treat morbid obesity. In order to be a candidate for gastric sleeve, it’s important to understand the qualifications, requirements, benefits, costs, and weight loss that impact patients’ eligibility.
Understanding Gastric Sleeve Surgery
The sleeve gastrectomy involves removing a significant portion of the stomach (up to 80-85%) in order to provide patients with a significant amount of restriction. This banana-shaped sleeve requires a tiny amount of food to feel full. Also, the reduced stomach size decreases your hunger and fills the stomach up faster with smaller food portions.
The gastric sleeve costs vary from $4,395 to $24,000, depending on the country you are interested in undergoing surgery. To find out if you pre-qualify, click here for to find out in 2-minutes or less.
Basic Requirements to Qualify for Gastric Sleeve in the United States
To simply qualify for gastric sleeve surgery in the United States, patients must have:
- Body Mass Index (BMI) over 40 or at least 100 pounds overweight
- BMI of 30 to 39 may be considered dependent on the physician, insurance provider, and surgeon, but only if the patient has health risks related to obesity
Unfortunately, these alone will not be enough to get insurance coverage to sign off to help pay for your surgery.
Am I a Candidate for Gastric Sleeve Insurance Coverage?
There are specific requirements and criteria needed to be covered for gastric sleeve surgery by most insurance providers. Most candidacy requirements for the gastric sleeve require an adult, between the ages of 18-65 years old, with a body mass index of at least 35.
In order to get covered by your health insurance provider, you generally have to undergo a variety of tests and health requirements dependent on insurance coverage or out-of-pocket cash pay.
- Be willing and able to adapt to a new lifestyle, usually proving attempts and failures of past diet, exercise, and additional weight loss techniques.
- More likely to be accepted if they have had obesity-related comorbidity (or health problem) for at least 5 years. Examples include type II diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, asthma, etc.
- On top of body mass index (BMI) and having health problems, you are likely to undergo a psychological evaluation to know that you are mentally prepared and able to not only handle the procedure but succeed long-term.
- Significant changes in behavior, lifestyle, and physical health are required after gastric sleeve surgery.
- A physical evaluation is also required in most cases to verify your body is able to handle the surgery to reduce risks of complications arising.
Additional Gastric Sleeve Requirements You May Need
- Additional testings may be required
- Blood Tests
- Health Evaluations may be required
- Psychological Evaluation
- Physical Evaluation
- Nutritional Evaluation
- Previous weight loss attempts through diets or exercise through a designated program regulated by health care professionals.
What to Do if Not Approved or Eligible in the United States?
There are a few really great alternatives to gastric sleeve surgery in the United States. One of the best options is to cash-pay for low-cost, high-quality weight loss surgery in Mexico.
Candidacy Requirements for Gastric Sleeve in Mexico
Mexico is a great alternative to weight loss surgery in the United States because of the surgeon’s experience, quality care, and safety standards that are in place by individual bariatric providers.
In order to qualify for gastric sleeve in Mexico, you must need;
- BMI over 30+
- Age 16-70
- Approvals that are more simple and take less time
- Fill out a Health Questionnaire to be approved by our bariatric surgeons
For example, Mexico Bariatric Center uses board-certified surgeons who all have lower complication rates than the average gastric sleeve complication rate in the United States.
Average Weight Loss Gastric Sleeve Surgery
The weight loss after gastric sleeve surgery varies from patient to patient. The average expected excess weight loss (%EWL) for gastric sleeve surgery with proper nutrition, diet, and exercise is;
- 3 months: 30% excess weight loss
- 6 months: 50% excess weight loss
- 12 months: 70% excess weight loss
- 18 months: 75% excess weight loss
Benefits of Gastric Sleeve Surgery
One benefit of gastric sleeve surgery is that it does not have the malabsorption (meaning less caloric intake because of the changes in anatomy) like gastric bypass surgery, which can sometimes cause too much weight loss for patients who have a lower BMI.
Additionally, health benefits include;
- Improve, reduce, and even cure obesity-related comorbidities – type II diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, arthritis, high blood pressure, cholesterol, fatty liver, depression, acid reflux (GERD), etc.
- Average of 65% expected excess weight loss in 1 year
- Low-risk because of no malabsorption or changes to the anatomy
- Resets metabolic thermostat – resets bodies setpoint
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