I am not the least bit surprised by this revelation. Years ago, I wrote in
my articles how I trust very few people, and that most certainly includes
people who are in the medical profession. I don't even trust dentists to be
honest. One small, intentional, sharp scrape on a tooth with one of their
tools, and you are back in the dentist's chair months later with a new
cavity to be fixed, by the dentist's own design.

It sickens me, and angers me, to think of how everyone is so beholden to the
"almighty" American dollar. The unscrupulous things that people -- including
medical professionals -- will do, in order to earn a profit, at the expense
of naive people who place their trust in them to do the right and honest
thing.

Here are a few select quotes from the full article below:

----- Begin Quotes -----

"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."

----- End Quotes -----

Truly, the heart of man is corrupt, exactly as the Bible says it is:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can
know it?"
Jeremiah 17:9, KJV


Doctor Faces Suits Over Cardiac Stents

By GARDINER HARRIS - NYT

December 5, 2010


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.

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 Abbott's 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. "We're spending a fortune as a country on
procedures that people don't need."

Dr. Midei's lawyer, Stephen L. Snyder, said that his client's 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 hospital's criminal conduct," said Mr.
Snyder, who filed a $60 million lawsuit against St. Joseph on Dr. Midei's
behalf accusing the hospital of damaging Dr. Midei's reputation by making
false claims about his care. (The hospital responded that the assessments of
Dr. Midei's 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. Midei's 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."


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