A Texas doctor accused of unnecessary stenting pushed for a trial to determine the outcome of his case after mediation efforts with the Texas Medical Board fell apart.

Dr. Samuel DeMaio is accused of standard-of-care violation related to nine patients who allegedly received unneeded stents, angiograms and ICD implants. One patient alone received 31 stents.

That patient had refused bypass surgery and DeMaio maintained that the stents were necessary and met the proper standard of care. He added that he might not make the same decision today, but only because the board’s pursuit of charges against him have had a "chilling effect" on his medical decision making.

Other allegations include failure to inform patients of risks and failure to obtain informed consent for off-label use of a device in one patient and five patients have filed lawsuits again DeMaio, Heartwire reported.

The case is going to an administrative trial, which DeMaio said he and his attorneys pursued after the state’s medical board refused to follow through on a mediation agreement reached by both parties.

DeMaio managed to retain his medical license through the ordeal, and is still practicing. He rejected a settlement offered to him, even though it didn’t include restrictions to his medical license, he told Heartwire.

Cases of unnecessary stenting keep adding up around the country, resulting in millions of dollars in fines and settlements.

Last month a Maryland hospital paid $1.8 million to settle allegations that senior leadership failed to properly address complaints of unnecessary stenting lodged against former cardiologist Dr. John McLean. McLean was convicted of health care fraud in July over insurance claims he filed on unnecessary stents implanted in Medicare and Medicaid patients, ordered unnecessary tests and made false entries in patient records.

In February fellow Maryland physician
Dr. Mark Midei, a cardiologist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, was accused of implanting unnecessary stents in as many as 369 patients. Midei lost his medical license in July, and the hospital paid $22 million to the federal government to settle a whistleblower lawsuit without admitting any guilt.

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.

Two Pennsylvania doctors are under investigation for ordering an alleged 200 unnecessary stents between 2009 and 2010.