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Cincinnati, OH

The owners of Good Samaritan Hospital and Mercy Hospital Fairfield have started comprehensive weight-loss centers, offering services ranging from bariatric surgery to exercise and nutrition classes.

The Good Samaritan Weight Management Center opened in mid-November in the adjacent medical office building in University Heights, housing a mental health counselor, dietitian and exercise physiologist. Fees include $500 for a full pre-surgical program and $75 for a three-month program with a dietitian.

The new Mercy Healthy Weight Solutions is in Springfield Township now but will move to the Fairfield HealthPlex early next year. It includes similar services plus a six-month membership to any Mercy HealthPlex and a wellness coach. Fees range from $300 to $1,200, including follow-up programs after surgery.

While hospitals and doctors have offered similar programs for years, the increasing popularity of weight-loss surgeries have persuaded them to package the services offered both before and after surgery to capitalize on their own brand names and create a bigger revenue stream.

It also comes as obesity rates increase, adding health-care cost to an already overburdened system. That could mean increased demand for a full-range of weight-loss programs, said Tom Urban, chief executive officer at Mercy Fairfield.

“We think it’s a service that’s needed in this area,” Urban said. “We think it will be profitable, but only because it’s a needed service.”

Other hospitals also offer the same services. For example, St. Luke Hospitals in Fort Thomas and Florence has seen 8,000 patient visits during the last three years at its Tri-State Surgical Weight Loss Center and is scheduled to perform its 1,000th surgery in January.

Nationally, obesity and overweight patients cost the health-care system about $117 billion a year, mainly through increased diabetes, heart disease and hypertension, says the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. More than 200,000 people had bariatric surgery last year, the group said, but that still is only 1 percent of the eligible population.

Insurance coverage still is spotty for full-scale bariatric surgery, which can cost $20,000 or more.

For example, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio does not cover bariatric surgery as a standard benefit, but large companies can include it as a rider for their employees. Anthem said it tries to identify patients who need surgery and hospitals that provide the best care.

Insurers offer more incentives for weight-management programs, including diet and exercise habits. Corporations are starting more wellness programs to encourage employees to eliminate bad health habits.

George Kerlakian, medical director of the Weight Management Center at Good Samaritan, said bariatric surgery will become even more common as the technology improves and the population ages. About half of 2,500 patients during the last six years have ended up having surgery, and the center is trying to double total volume during the next several years.

“It brings patients in,” Kerlakian said of the center. “Obese patients have or will have a lot of medical problems in the future. That connection is important to us as we take care of them.

“We don’t look at surgery as an end-all,” he added. “We really stress the fact that it’s a tool.”

More than half of bariatric surgeries are gastric bypass, where the stomach is reduced and then attached to the small intestine. A gastric banding wraps a band around the stomach, while an emerging procedure called a sleeve gastrectomy removes about 85 percent of the stomach.

Cindy McBride of Bridgetown, a patient at the Good Samaritan center who also works at the hospital, had the sleeve gastrectomy in April and has lost 107 pounds. She’ll be doing follow-up work for more than a year, including visits with a physical therapist and a nutritionist.

“I think it’s a great way to do it because your physicians and your support staff are all on-site,” McBride said.