Patients notified of unneeded stents

TOWSON, Md., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md., may have unnecessarily implanted stents in 369 cardiology patients, hospital officials said.

The hospital's cardiology business is the subject of a federal healthcare fraud investigation, The Baltimore Sun reported Friday.

The 369 stent patients were contacted by the hospital last month, Jeffrey Norman, the hospital's chief executive officer told the Sun.

The only doctor implicated in the review, Mark Midei, has had his hospital privileges revoked. Midei told the Sun he expects to be cleared of wrongdoing.

Coronary stent placements, which can cost more than $10,000, open arteries clogged with plaque or create a bridge around damaged areas.

Typically, stents are inserted during cardiac catheterization, in which a tool is inserted into the bloodstream through a small incision in the leg and threaded up to the arteries close to the heart.