HJAR May/Jun 2022

56 MAY / JUN 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS BARIATRIC COLUMN BARIATRIC AMERICA’S obesity problem is at epidem- ic proportions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 73.6% of adult Americans are considered overweight with 42.5% being considered obese. It doesn’t look like the problem will be reversing any time soon because almost 21.2% of adolescents aged 12-19 also struggle with obesity. The direct and indirect medical costs of health conditions related to obesity have been estimated to exceed $1.4 trillion per year. And the price tag for obesity in Ar- kansas alone exceeds $200 billion. Latest estimates put Arkansas in third place when it comes to national obesity rates, lagging only toMississippi andWest Virginia. Of course, the downstream effects of obesity are staggering: • We have among the highest acute myo- cardial infarction mortality rates in the country — 64% higher than the national averages. • Approximately one out of every nine Arkansans has diabetes. • We have the dubious honor of Jackson County — Newport being the county seat — having the highest rate of diabetes in the country with nearly one in three residents carrying the diagnosis. • All of this results in the life expectancy of the average Arkansan to be reduced 2.6 years from the national average. Thankfully, this has not escaped the notice of the legislators in Little Rock. For many years, state employees could access bariatric surgery—one option in the fight against obe- sity. Eligible members had access to a “pilot program” that allowed for bariatric surgery, but this program had requirements and hur- dles that made real access an issue. As part of a restructuring to provide cost-effective and high-quality insurance options, Arkan- sas enlisted the assistance of consultants to evaluate the offerings and make recommen- dations. The consultants were specifically tasked with evaluating the results of the “pi- lot program” and make further recommen- dations concerning bariatric surgery in the OBESITY in America