Bariatric surgery Centers of Excellence did not restrict access to care

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ 2006 certification requirement that bariatric surgery be performed only in hospitals designated as Centers of Excellence did not prove to be a barrier to patients’ access to bariatric surgical care, a study finds.

Some individuals believed the 2006 certification requirement impeded access to care and it became highly controversial, so CMS removed the requirement in 2013.

The findings do not support the hypothesis that restricting bariatric surgical patients to Centers of Excellence reduced access to care or increased disparities, the authors say. More research is needed to determine whether the 2013 change in policy might sacrifice patient safety without addressing the real cause of limited access to care.

Access the study published online May 20 in JAMA Surgery.