Forty-Five Things Physicians And Patients Should Question

Around 17 percent of the US economy is tied to healthcare but a new study shows that number maybe should be a lot less. Nine medical societies are teaming up to release a list of unnecessary medical procedures that Americans get every day.

Government estimates say up to a third of routine medical procedures are unnecessary, that equals out to about $700 billion.

Nine medical societies, that include allergy doctors, cardiologists and radiologists - have come up with 45 routine procedures that they say patients don't need.

Here are a just few of them, CT Scans or MRI after fainting. Chest X-rays before outpatient surgery and certain imaging tests for early stage cancer.

See the entire list on ChooseWisely.org.

Some doctors say that one danger of overusing procedures like these is that they can lead to false positives, which can lead to more tests, more expensive hospital stays and sometimes- dangerous side effects.

"I think both physicians and patients sometimes get into the mindset of more is better. But it's really important to think through each thing we do," said Dr. Michael Barry.

And finally, this may not come as a surprise, but some doctors admit while these procedures are unnecessary, they're done to prevent patients from suing them.