LOS ANGELES, June 7 (UPI) -- Surgeries on overweight people have become big business at U.S. hospitals which are scrambling to raise their revenues.
In California, for example, the Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center performed 467 weight-loss operations last year, up from 19 in 1997, reports the Los Angeles Times. Patients came from as far away as Alaska, Japan and Germany.
Across the country, stomach stapling and other weight-loss surgeries have grown nearly tenfold in a dozen years, said the report.
More than 140,000 patients underwent the procedures in the U.S. last year -- at an average cost of $25,000 -- generating revenue of more than $3.5 billion.
Weight loss surgery is a welcome trend at U.S. hospitals, one-third of which are losing money. Besides, the procedures are elective whereby a hospital can wait to verify insurance coverage, cash a patient's personal check or help a patient line up financing before scheduling an operation, the Times said.
Some insurers say the trend could jeopardize patient safety. They cite studies that surgeons who performed fewer than 50 operations have more patient complications and higher death rates.
