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This story brings a smile to my face. You see it all the time...stents placed for the almighty dollar...not for patient care. Patients would be shocked how often it happens. Of course you could say that about a lot of things in medicine...another example of how the fee for service model can turn doctors into criminals.
Here is hoping Midei's career continues to crash and burn....
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/health/06stent.html?_r=1&ref=health
Word quickly reached top executives at Abbott Laboratories that a Baltimore cardiologist, Dr. Mark Midei, had inserted 30 of the companys 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. Mideis 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.
The report also describes the close relationship between Dr. Midei and Abbott Labs, which paid consulting fees to the cardiologist after he left the hospital. The serious allegations lodged against Dr. Midei regarding the medically unnecessary implantation of cardiac stents did not appear to deter Abbotts interest in assisting him, the report states.
The case has turned into a legal quagmire for Dr. Midei and St. Joseph, which have been sued by hundreds of patients who claim they received unnecessary implants. Some doctors say the case has revealed a level of inappropriate care that is more common than most patients know.
What was going on in Baltimore is going on right now in every city in America, said Dr. Steven Nissen, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who said he routinely treats patients who have been given multiple unneeded stents. Were spending a fortune as a country on procedures that people dont need.
Dr. Mideis lawyer, Stephen L. Snyder, said that his clients treatment of his patients was entirely appropriate and that Dr. Midei, who has recently practiced medicine at the Prince Salman Heart Center in Saudi Arabia, would be exonerated.
This is all trumped up to hide the hospitals criminal conduct, said Mr. Snyder, who filed a $60 million lawsuit against St. Joseph on Dr. Mideis behalf accusing the hospital of damaging Dr. Mideis reputation by making false claims about his care. (The hospital responded that the assessments of Dr. Mideis care were done by independent experts.)
Last month, St. Joseph agreed to pay a $22 million fine to settle charges that it paid illegal kickbacks to Dr. Mideis medical practice, MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates, in exchange for patient referrals; the hospital did not admit wrongdoing. St. Joseph said in a statement Friday that it now conducts monthly random reviews of stent cases to assure such a situation cannot occur again.
As for Abbott Labs, a spokesman wrote in an e-mail that its affiliation with Dr. Midei ended early this year. Dr. Midei has been a highly regarded physician in his field, with whom Abbott had consulted in the past, said the spokesman, Jonathan Hamilton. We have no further comment at this time.
The case has had wide repercussions. Over the past year, St. Joseph has told hundreds of Dr. Mideis patients that they did not need the expensive and potentially dangerous stents that the doctor inserted because their arteries were not as obstructed as he had claimed. Now, state health officials are investigating other local cardiologists who inserted a suspiciously high number of stents, which are tiny wire mesh devices inserted to prop open clogged arteries in the heart.
After reports about the Midei case and the wider state investigation, the number of stent procedures performed at St. Joseph and other area hospitals plunged, raising doubts about the appropriateness of much of the regions cardiac care.
A landmark 2007 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that many patients given stents would fare just as well without them. Dr. Christopher J. White, president-elect of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, said that inappropriate stenting was a problem, but a rare one. The federal Medicare program spent $3.5 billion last year on stent procedures.
Here is hoping Midei's career continues to crash and burn....
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/health/06stent.html?_r=1&ref=health
Word quickly reached top executives at Abbott Laboratories that a Baltimore cardiologist, Dr. Mark Midei, had inserted 30 of the companys 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. Mideis 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.
The report also describes the close relationship between Dr. Midei and Abbott Labs, which paid consulting fees to the cardiologist after he left the hospital. The serious allegations lodged against Dr. Midei regarding the medically unnecessary implantation of cardiac stents did not appear to deter Abbotts interest in assisting him, the report states.
The case has turned into a legal quagmire for Dr. Midei and St. Joseph, which have been sued by hundreds of patients who claim they received unnecessary implants. Some doctors say the case has revealed a level of inappropriate care that is more common than most patients know.
What was going on in Baltimore is going on right now in every city in America, said Dr. Steven Nissen, chief of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who said he routinely treats patients who have been given multiple unneeded stents. Were spending a fortune as a country on procedures that people dont need.
Dr. Mideis lawyer, Stephen L. Snyder, said that his clients treatment of his patients was entirely appropriate and that Dr. Midei, who has recently practiced medicine at the Prince Salman Heart Center in Saudi Arabia, would be exonerated.
This is all trumped up to hide the hospitals criminal conduct, said Mr. Snyder, who filed a $60 million lawsuit against St. Joseph on Dr. Mideis behalf accusing the hospital of damaging Dr. Mideis reputation by making false claims about his care. (The hospital responded that the assessments of Dr. Mideis care were done by independent experts.)
Last month, St. Joseph agreed to pay a $22 million fine to settle charges that it paid illegal kickbacks to Dr. Mideis medical practice, MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates, in exchange for patient referrals; the hospital did not admit wrongdoing. St. Joseph said in a statement Friday that it now conducts monthly random reviews of stent cases to assure such a situation cannot occur again.
As for Abbott Labs, a spokesman wrote in an e-mail that its affiliation with Dr. Midei ended early this year. Dr. Midei has been a highly regarded physician in his field, with whom Abbott had consulted in the past, said the spokesman, Jonathan Hamilton. We have no further comment at this time.
The case has had wide repercussions. Over the past year, St. Joseph has told hundreds of Dr. Mideis patients that they did not need the expensive and potentially dangerous stents that the doctor inserted because their arteries were not as obstructed as he had claimed. Now, state health officials are investigating other local cardiologists who inserted a suspiciously high number of stents, which are tiny wire mesh devices inserted to prop open clogged arteries in the heart.
After reports about the Midei case and the wider state investigation, the number of stent procedures performed at St. Joseph and other area hospitals plunged, raising doubts about the appropriateness of much of the regions cardiac care.
A landmark 2007 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that many patients given stents would fare just as well without them. Dr. Christopher J. White, president-elect of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, said that inappropriate stenting was a problem, but a rare one. The federal Medicare program spent $3.5 billion last year on stent procedures.
