Doctor Faces Suits Over Cardiac Stents

[groovedaddy]

Word quickly reached top executives at Abbott Laboratories that a Baltimore cardiologist, Dr. Mark Midei, had inserted 30 of the company’s cardiac stents in a single day in August 2008, “which is the biggest day I remember hearing about,” an executive wrote in a celebratory e-mail.

Two days later, an Abbott sales representative spent $2,159 to buy a whole, slow-smoked pig, peach cobbler and other fixings for a barbecue dinner at Dr. Midei’s home, according to a report being released Monday by the Senate. The dinner was just a small part of the millions in salary and perks showered on Dr. Midei for putting more stents in more patients than almost any other cardiologist in Baltimore.

The Senate Finance Committee, which oversees Medicare, started investigating Dr. Midei in February after a series of articles in The Baltimore Sun said that Dr. Midei at St. Joseph Medical Center, in Towson, Md., had inserted stents in patients who did not need them, reaping high reimbursements from Medicare and private insurance.

The senators solicited 10,000 documents from Abbott and St. Joseph. Their report, provided in advance to The New York Times, concludes that Dr. Midei “may have implanted 585 stents which were medically unnecessary” from 2007 to 2009. Medicare paid $3.8 million of the $6.6 million charged for those procedures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/health/06stent.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a23

[aquart]

1. Jail his greedy ass.

[drm604]

2. 30 in one day?

In an 8 hour day he'd have to do one every 16 minutes non-stop.

I'm not in the medical field and I know little about the procedure but is it really safe to do it so quickly?

[iamtechus]

3. Whistleblowers?

I have three stents in my coronary arteries, all placed using a catheter. Two were placed at one time and the third, nine years later. The surgeon used a catheter which was inserted in my groin and fished up into my heart.

I was conscious through both procedures and was able to see it all on a video monitor. Besides the surgeon, there were four or five other people in the room. Included were nurses, anesthetists and some apparently just observing. Everyone could see what was going on. The obstructions in the arteries were made visible by "dye" which highlighted them on the monitor.

In short, there were at least four or five medically trained people present who knew exactly what was going on and would have known whether stents were called for.

How/why was it possible for that doctor to insert hundreds of "medically unnecessary" stents before someone acted???

[groovedaddy]

4. If the lawsuit makes it to trial, I guess we'll find out then. n.t

[jetpropelled]

5. doctor accused of 30 stents a day

who is the kidder and who is being kidded? the doctor is the one with deep pockets. He carries the big malpractice insurance, so he is the one who gets the heat, of course there were 20 other people on this detail each operation, and each of them made money out of the money that Medicare claims they paid, They did not pay the DOCTOR that much money, they paid the hospital, the anesthesiologist, the pharmacy, you get it, they pay every one, The Doctor made money for all of them. and he is the one led to the slaughter. Yes someone ratted him out, a nurse who did not ge the bonus she thought she shoulf have or the med student who did not get the performance report he /she thought theuy deserved, they made the call. but the hospital and 20 people in the room and that did the billing made money, had a job. I hope they remember the doctor on his birthday and at Christmas.

[Name removed]

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