Eastern Shore doctor convicted of criminal charges in stent case - baltimoresun.com

Eastern Shore doctor convicted of criminal charges in stent case - baltimoresun.com: "A federal jury convicted a retired Eastern Shore cardiologist Tuesday of health care fraud and related charges for placing unnecessary coronary stents in the arteries of dozens of patients, then billing private and public insurers hundreds of thousands of dollars for the procedures.

John R. McLean, 59, who surrendered his medical privileges at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in 2007 after a hospital investigation, faces a maximum of 35 years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Nov. 10, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office." Click the link above to read the full Baltimore Sun Article.

Cardiologist's License Ordered Revoked In Stents Case - Baltimore News Story - WBAL Baltimore

Cardiologist's License Ordered Revoked In Stents Case - Baltimore News Story - WBAL Baltimore

Dr. Mark Midei's Medical License Ordered Revoked in Baltimore Stent Cases.

If you received a stent from Dr. Mark Midei or St. Joseph Medical Center, contact my office for a free review of your stent procedures by our cardiologists. We are currently representing clients who have stent lawsuits filed in the Circuit Court of Baltimore County. You may be entitled to monetary compensation for your stent procedure.

Contact us now for a free review and to speak with our Stent Attorney, G. Randolph Rice, Jr., Esquire.

Baltimore based stent lawyers

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Baltimore, Maryland 21222

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www.StJosephStents.com

St. Joseph Medical Center / Dr. Mark Midei Heart Stent Lawsuit Attorney

Free Review of your Heart Stent from St. Joseph Medical Center and Dr. Mark Midei.

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Unnecessary stents: criminal trial of one doctor begins while board considers fate of another - baltimoresun.com

Unnecessary stents: criminal trial of one doctor begins while board considers fate of another - baltimoresun.com: "While the Maryland Board of Physicians weighs professional charges against one cardiologist accused of placing heart stents into hundreds of patients who didn't need them, a federal jury in Baltimore is considering criminal charges against another.

The health care fraud trial of Dr. John R. McLean, who practiced at a hospital on the Eastern Shore before surrendering his medical privileges in 2007, opened Tuesday in Baltimore's U.S. District Court." Click the Link above to read more.

Heart Stent at St. Joseph Medical Center and Dr. Mark Midei Stent Lawsuit

Have you received a heart stent from St. Joseph Medical Center or Dr. Mark Midei?  Contact the Baltimore Stent Lawyer at 410-288-2900.  Our cardiologists will review your stent procedure for FREE and determine if you received an unneeded stent.  Contact us now to discuss your case and receive our FREE stent packet.  All information is confidential, no fee if no recovery.

New study scrutinizes heart stent procedures - baltimoresun.com

New study scrutinizes heart stent procedures - baltimoresun.com: "A new study of more than 500,000 cardiac patients who underwent recent cardiac stent or angioplasty procedures in the United States has found that up to 15 percent were either unnecessary or appeared to be of uncertain medical benefit.

However, nearly all of the procedures performed on cardiac patients experiencing acute symptoms such as a heart attacks appeared to have been medically appropriate, the study found." Click the link above to read more of the Baltimore Sun Article.

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New study scrutinizes heart stent procedures

New study scrutinizes heart stent procedures

If you received a stent from St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson Maryland or Dr. Mark Midei, contact my office for a free review of your stent procedure. You may be entitled to monetary compensation. We are currently representing clients in the lawsuit filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Let us determine if you should have your day in Court.

Law Offices of G. Randolph Rice, Jr., LLC

Baltimore Stent Lawyer

6914 Holabird Avenue, Suite A

Baltimore, Maryland 21222

410-288-2900 Available 24/7

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Probe focuses on heart Stents at St. Joseph Medical Center

Maryland Stent Lawyer

Probe focuses on heart stents - Baltimore Sun, January 15, 2010

St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, whose cardiology business is a focus of a continuing federal health-care fraud investigation, has notified hundreds of its heart patients that they may have received expensive and potentially dangerous coronary implants they didn't need.

An internal review, begun last May at the behest of federal investigators and in response to a patient complaint, has turned up 369 patients with stents that appear to have been implanted in their arteries unnecessarily, CEO Jeffrey K. Norman said in an interview yesterday. Patients began receiving letters alerting them to the finding early last month, and more notifications are expected as the review continues."We take our interaction and the care of our patients with the utmost seriousness, and so we wanted to alert patients and their physicians to what we found," said Norman.

In several cases reviewed by The Baltimore Sun, patients who received coronary stents at St. Joseph - purportedly to open a clogged artery to correct a severe blockage - have since learned they had only minor blockage, if any. One 69-year-old man was told his artery had a 95 percent blockage, yet the new review suggests something closer to 10 percent, which is considered insignificant. A 55-year-old woman who agreed to receive a stent after being told she had a 90 percent blockage has since learned she had virtually no problem and that she never suffered from the heart diagnosis that has consumed her life for the past 18 months.

St. Joseph calls itself the busiest heart catheterization center in Maryland, and it is regarded as one of the primary cardiac care facilities in the region. The center typically performs about 6,500 cardiac procedures a year - an average of 18 a day. Last year St. Joseph highlighted the placement of its 100,000th coronary stent since 1980.

Hospital officials say the only doctor implicated in their review is one of the center's marquee physicians, Dr. Mark G. Midei, who abruptly stopped practicing and lost his privileges at the hospital last summer without notice to his patients or any comment from hospital officials.

Midei declined to discuss the matter in detail but released a statement Thursday saying he expects to be exonerated and to return to medical practice.

"I am confident that I have always acted in the best interest of my patients, and when all the facts are presented, I will continue providing quality medical care to my patients," he said.

Coronary stents are cylindrical devices that can open arteries clogged with plaque or create a bridge across areas of damage. They are typically inserted during a procedure called cardiac catheterization, in which a tool is inserted into the bloodstream at a small incision in the leg and threaded up to the arteries near the heart.

An alternative to open- chest surgery, cardiac catheterization with stent placement is a lucrative business for hospitals in the United States, which often charge $10,000 or more for the procedure. Most clinical guidelines, and reimbursement rules for Medicare and private insurance, set minimum thresholds for the procedure, often requiring at least 70 percent blockage of an artery before a stent should be placed. St. Joseph's guidelines regard blockage of 50 percent or less to be "insignificant."

Letters began arriving at patients' homes last month, alerting them to "differences" or "variances" uncovered in their medical files, and advising them to call their cardiologists. Packages sent to their cardiologists contained copies of the patients' X-ray images, along with the written laboratory report prepared when the stent was placed.

A prominent medical malpractice attorney in Towson, said he has spoken with people who received letters and that many are contemplating legal action.

"A very substantial number of people received coronary artery stents they did not need," [the attorney] said.

"And they not only had a procedure that wasn't needed, they have a stent in their artery for the rest of their life, they're on a serious blood-thinning drug, and there's the psychological effect of being led to believe that you have heart disease."

Vicki Marrs, a 55-year-old patient from Conowingo, is typical. She got a stent in July 2008 after arriving at St. Joseph's with chest discomfort and being told one of her arteries was 90 percent blocked. Now doctors and lawyers who have reviewed her files say Marrs had only a 10 percent blockage at most, and that she never suffered from the kind of heart disease described by Midei 18 months ago.

"I'm angry and I'm upset," said Marrs, after telling of the changes in her emotions and lifestyle following that diagnosis. Patients who receive stents must take blood thinners, and she said she battles fatigue from her daily dose of the drug.

"You go to a doctor thinking he's going to take care of you and make you better, and now I have this thing that I don't need and that can't be removed," she said. "I trusted him."

Norman, while acknowledging the hospital has enountered patients "who've been upset and angry," said the hospital's investigation and patient notification process has been conducted in the interest of getting information to patients quickly so they can consult with their cardiologists. The investigation focused solely on Midei after a random sampling raised questions about him, Norman said, and it will include reviews of patient records over the past two years - the time during which potential complications from the procedure would be expected to surface.

While stent placement is a common and relatively safe procedure, it is not without complications and potential hazards. One study published four years ago in the Netherlands reported a 5.7 percent rate of "major" complications from stent placement, including a 2.3 percent death rate. Physicians with more experience at the procedure had fewer complications, it concluded.

Norman said that no other employees of the hospital have been implicated in the review.

"The physician is the captain," he said. "The physician is in charge."

Asked if the hospital bears any additional liability for the patients who received stents they didn't need, Norman said:

"I suppose we do. I think that we'll see what comes from these attorneys that are looking for cases, and we'll respond to that."

Doctors and hospitals in other parts of the country who placed stents when that blockage threshold wasn't met have faced lawsuits, fines and even prison time.

In 2007, a doctor at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury was accused of performing unnecessary stent procedures and is being sued by 24 patients. The doctor, John R. McLean, resigned from practice, citing deteriorating eyesight.

Last year, a Louisiana doctor was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on health-care fraud charges for placing unnecessary coronary stents and then billing Medicare and private insurance companies. Two hospitals where he worked paid a combined $5.7 million penalty to the federal government, and one paid an additional $7.4 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by the doctor's patients.

St. Joseph announced in July that it had negotiated a settlement with federal health-care fraud investigators related to the hospital's relationship with MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates, the dominant cardiology practice in suburban Baltimore. Details of that settlement were not disclosed and are expected to be announced soon, but court records have speculated that the hospital will pay a fine that exceeds $5 million.