Insurers fully recover the costs of laparoscopic bariatric surgery in about two years compared to the period of four years for traditional bariatric surgery, a new study published in the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) found.

The study conducted by a team of economists and bariatric surgeons led by Analysis Group Inc., compared insurance claims for more than 3,600 patients who had the bariatric surgery, to other obese people who did not have the surgery. The participants were matched by age, gender and the length of time they’d had a diagnosis of morbid obesity.

In the group who went through batritric surgery, the levels of sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes decreased, while in the group who did not have the surgery the levels stayed the same or increased.

“Treating morbid obesity with bariatric surgery makes clinical sense and now it makes economic sense, even accounting for potential complications from surgery,” said co-author Henry Buchwald, a professor of surgery at the University of Minnesota.

Health care costs for obese patients who had bariatric surgery dropped while costs for obese people who did not have weight loss surgery continued to rise.

More than 15 million people in the U.S. are obese. According to the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), about 205,000 people had some form of bariatric surgery last year. The most common forms of weight-loss surgery are gastric bypass and gastric banding.

“The most cost-effective treatment for obesity is bariatric surgery,” the researchers concluded, adding that within two to four years, patients get their money back.