Coronary stent

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 last month over insurance claims he filed on unnecessary stents implanted in Medicare and Medicaid patients.

McLean was also charged with ordering unnecessary test and making false entries in patient records, Heartwire reported.

Peninsula Regional began investigating the hospital’s stenting records upon receiving an anonymous tip after McLean resigned in 2007. In the recent trial that led to Mclean’s conviction, evidence suggested that he may have implanted as many as 100 unnecessary cardiac stents. He awaits sentencing and could face up to 10 years in prison.

McLean is not the only Maryland doc with a recent ruckus over improper stenting.

Dr. Mark Midei, a cardiologist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md., has been accused of implanting unnecessary stents in as many as 369 patients.

Midei lost his medical license last month, and the hospital paid $22 million to the federal government to settle a whistleblower lawsuit without admitting any guilt.

The problem arose in other states as well.

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.