A Louisiana interventional cardiologist accused of performing heart procedures on patient unnecessarily began his 10-year prison sentence this month after years of attempting to appeal his verdict.
Dr. Mehmood Patel, 64, was convicted in 2009 of 51 counts of fraudulently billing Medicare and other insurance groups for medical procedures that were deemed unnecessary. Patel was given a 10-year prison sentence, which was to start in July 2009.