Outside of elective surgical realms, I've also seen and heard of trends of expensive non-treatment treatments that prolong misery. Take orthopedics with routine

Outside of elective surgical realms, I've also seen and heard of trends of expensive non-treatment treatments that prolong misery. Take orthopedics with routine cortisone and/or hyaluronic acid injections: delaying the "inevitable" and sometimes hurrying it along. Then there's the outright Medicare fraud of orthotics, braces, and all sorts of overpriced, shoddy paraphernalia that's mostly concerned with coding (billing) rather than patient comfort or wellbeing.