Recent reports are showing that some patients who travel to Mexico for bariatric surgery undergo botched operations. Anna Ibele, MD, a bariatric surgeon at University of Utah Health, has seen this happen in patients that have come through her clinic. In a study, she has found that patients had delays in diagnosis of their health complications because they were unexpected and occurred weeks after returning home, making a bad situation even worse. Further, patients also incurred a financial burden because most insurance companies don’t cover the cost of complications from surgeries performed in Mexico. Patients’ average hospital charges amounted to more nearly $240,000 with an average of nearly $11,000 paid out-of-pocket.
Dr. Ibele is available for comment.
Contact Julie Kiefer, University of Utah Health, [email protected], 801-587-1293.
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