Dr. John Wang
A malpractice lawyer accused Union Memorial Hospital cardiologist Dr. John Chung-Yee Wang, a member of the committee charged with stopping over-stenting in the Old Line State, of improper stenting in his own practice.
Medical malpractice attorney Jay Miller filed charges with the health claims arbitration office that Wang, Dr. Kourosh Mastali and convicted over-stenting cardiologist Dr. Mark Midei wrongfully stented patient John Bowers in 2005 and 2006, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Miller alleged that Wang, Midei and Kourosh wrongfully stented patients when they were partners in the debunked MidAtlantic Cardiovascular Associates practice, according to heartwire. Miller also charged Wang with overstating the extent of heart disease in a patient to justify implanting a coronary stent.
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Wang was nominated for the Technical Advisory Group on Oversight of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Services, a group tasked with developing legislative changes to stop over-stenting by the Maryland Health Care Commission.
"The allegations could cast a shadow over the work of the advisory committee," the Sun reports.
Midei had his license revoked by the state Board of Physicians in July over allegations that he implanted unnecessary coronary stents in 369 patients while working at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md. The hospital paid $22 million to the federal government to settle a whistleblower lawsuit over those cases, without admitting any guilt.
Wang and Midei aren’t the only Maryland cardiologists at the center of a ruckus over improper stenting.
Dr. John McLean, charged with implanting unnecessary stents in order to defraud Medicare and Medicaid, was slapped with 8 years in jail last month and must pay nearly $600,000 in restitution.
McClean’s hospital paid $1.8 million to settle allegations that senior leadership failed to properly address complaints of unnecessary stenting lodged against the former cardiologist. McLean, 59, was also charged with ordering unnecessary tests and making false entries in patient records in order to bill Medicare and Medicaid for expensive stenting procedures.
"Placing unnecessary stents in the hearts of patients is a crime of unthinkable proportions," Nicholas DiGiulio, special agent in charge for the U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services, said in prepared remarks. "A doctor who insists on practicing greed rather than good medicine will ultimately pay a heavy price."
Texas doctor Samuel DeMaio, accused last year of standard-of-care violations related to 9 patients who allegedly received unneeded stents, angiograms and ICD implants, slipped 3 of 4 trials against him with his license to practice in the Lone Star State intact.
In June a whistleblower called out a Tennessee doc and two hospitals for allegations of unnecessary stenting and accused hospital leadership of attacking physicians who tried to oppose the scheme by giving them bad-faith peer reviews leading to their elimination from the medical staff.
A pair of Pennsylvania doctors are currently under investigation for ordering an alleged 200 unnecessary stents between 2009 and 2010.
