A federal jury found Dr. John McLean, the cardiology interventionalist in the center of the latest unnecessary stent scandal guilty. This comes just weeks after Dr, Midei – (as previously discussed here at Cartagena Surgery), lost his medical license for after placing unnecessary stents in multiple patients. This verdict comes in the wake of multiple scandals involving multiple physicians, which has shocked and horrified both medical community and the general public.
As a healthcare provider, the actions of these physicians disgusts and sickens me. In addition to the unnecessary risks and possible harm done to the patients, it is the betrayal of the patient’s trust, and the erosion of the public’s confidence in their care which is equally inexcusable. I, for one, hope that these verdicts serve to show the public that we will not stand for such abuses. We will not turn a blind eye to the wrong doings of others, simply because we are in health care – and we will not tolerate such practices.
Fraud conviction for McLean in latest unnecessary-stenting case
July 27, 2011 | Shelley Wood
Baltimore, MD – Maryland, the epicenter du jour for high-profile “unnecessary-stenting” cases in the US, is in the spotlight again this week following a guilty verdict in the case of retired interventional cardiologist Dr John R Mclean.
A federal jury convicted McLean, 59, on six charges of healthcare fraud relating to insurance claims he’d filed for stents deemed to have been placed unnecessarily, as well as for ordering unnecessary tests and making false entries in patient medical records.
“The evidence shows that Dr McLean egregiously violated the trust of his patients and made false entries in their medical records to justify implanting unneeded cardiac stents and billing for the surgery and follow-up care,” US Attorney Rod J Rosenstein said in a statement released by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Tuesday [1].
McLean faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for healthcare fraud and five years in prison on each of five counts of making false statements, the OIG statement notes. McLean’s sentencing is scheduled for November 10, 2011.
The jury conviction of McLean comes within weeks of the Maryland Medical Board’s decision to revoke the medical license of Dr Mark Midei, citing “repeated and serious” violations of the Medical Practice Act surrounding the implantation of unnecessary stents.
As previously reported by heartwire, McLean resigned his hospital privileges at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD in 2007, citing visual impairment as the reason for his resignation. Hospital administrators, however, acting on an anonymous tip, had conducted internal and external reviews leading them to conclude that McLean had implanted as many as 25 stents in patients who did not meet the clinical criteria for PCI.
During the two-week trial that ended in yesterday’s conviction, evidence brought forward suggested that McLean had performed cardiac catheterizations and implanted unnecessary cardiac stents in more than 100 patients. “He then falsely recorded in the patients’ medical records the existence or extent of coronary artery blockage, known as lesions, observed during the procedures in order to justify the stent and the submission of claims to healthcare benefit programs, including Medicare and Medicaid,” the OIG statement reads.
The US government is also seeking to recoup what it estimates to have been the proceeds of McLean’s scheme—a forfeiture of $711 583. The precise amount will be determined at the time of sentencing.
At least one other cardiologist has been sentenced in criminal charges for unnecessary stenting. As previously reported by heartwire, Dr Mehmood Patel, formerly of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and Lafayette General Hospital in Louisiana, was convicted on 51 counts of billing private and government health insurers for unnecessary medical procedures and received a 10-year sentence.
Article re-post from Heartwire.com
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[...] The suit, filed under the False Claims Act (FCA) and first reported January 22, 2012 in the Erie Times-News [1], states that as a result of the fraud, Medicare overpaid for these procedures, which wasted substantial public money, and patients were placed at significant and unnecessary risk of harm. [...]