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Benefits December 9, 2004
Survey: More Employees Asking for Weight Loss Surgery
December 9, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Although three
quarters of companies surveyed don't cover weight-loss
surgery under their health-coverage plans, benefits officials
say they're seeing more requests for coverage of the
bariatric surgery to take off unwanted pounds.
Reported by
Fred Schneyer
A news release from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) said the survey of 350 HR professionals found that 77% don’t offer the weight-loss surgery coverage while 23% do include it. A third (34%) also said they were getting more coverage requests from employees.
SHRM also pointed out that its latest benefits survey found that 26% of companies offered weight-loss programs in 2004-up from 18% five years ago and that 56% of organizations offer wellness and fitness programs, up from 51% five years ago.
More information about SHRM is at www.shrm.org .