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.

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 .

«