Controversial New IQ Test for Gastric Bypass Patients?
I didn’t think this even sounded legal, but apparently it is, or this insurance company has slipped by thus far with this stipulation. According to some news stories, a certain health insurance company is now requiring prospective gastric bypass patients to take an IQ test.
Is this because they do not trust people of a certain IQ to follow through with taking care of themselves after the surgery, or for the simple fact that they will discriminate against those that do not pass a certain mark on the IQ test? It seems like it’s right on the line of questionable, and people are questioning it, as expected.
Within the past few years, we’ve heard more and more about gastric bypass surgery, and the popularity of the surgery seems to be speeding up, not slowing down. This has led some to believe that many insurance companies are having a tough time keeping up with the requests from patients who want the weight reduction surgery for the medically obese, and are looking for reasons to say no to some of them to help reduce costs and perhaps even discourage people from asking for the procedure.
A spokesperson for the insurance company in question said that the test is not really an IQ screening, it’s more of a test to see what the patient’s knowledge is about the surgery, to see if they are a qualified candidate, and a patient has never been turned down for the surgery based solely on the screening test so far.
Consumer and obesity advocacy groups are speaking out against this new policy, saying the prospective gastric bypass patients already have to face enough red tape to get the surgery done, and this really just adds one more hurdle to jump for them, making it less “user friendly” for those that truly medically need the surgery to reduce their weight.
