Some Facts about Unnecessary Surgeries
Out of the millions of surgical procedures that take place every year, approximately 7.5 million are believed to be unnecessary procedures. Other estimates place the number of unnecessary surgical procedures at 60% of the total number of surgeries in the country, excluding cosmetic surgery.
It’s distressful to think that your surgeon could recommend a surgical procedure that is not entirely necessary for you. Unfortunately, this happens all too often. Sometimes, this happens because of general ignorance, but other times, it happens because your doctor simply didn't care to research your condition in detail to determine that you were indeed an eligible candidate for surgery. However, as Indiana medical malpractice lawyers are finding out, many of these unnecessary surgeries are simply being performed by doctors who are greedy.
For every doctor, surgery means big money. Recommending a surgery to a patient makes much more financial sense for doctors than recommending conservative and time-consuming treatments and therapies. The greed for financial profits not just by doctors, but also the hospitals they work for, has meant millions of Americans going under the knife every year for unnecessary reasons.
The cardiac health sector has some of the highest rates of unnecessary surgical procedures in the country. According to some doctors, coronary bypass surgeries are the most frequently performed unnecessary surgeries in the country. These surgeries often lead to complications, and even death.
Women's health care has been another area where doctors freely push and promote unnecessary surgical procedures. Cesarean sections come to mind. Having a C-section has become exceedingly common these days. Many of the women who undergo a C-section remain blissfully unaware of their options, and are operated on by doctors who can't be bothered to wait for a vaginal delivery.
There's no doubt that these procedures are extremely lucrative for doctors and hospitals. In one case, an ophthalmologist billed his Medicare provider approximately $46 million over a period of four years, for unnecessary surgeries he had performed in patients.
