A Louisiana hospital has agreed to pay $1.9 million to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle charges that it knowingly permitted a cardiologist to perform medically unnecessary procedures on patients between 1999 and 2004. The cardiologist, Dr. Mehmood Patel, faces 93 counts of health care fraud for performing the procedures, which, because they were unnecessary, defrauded state and federal health plans.
According to the U.S. Attorney General Donald Washington, 24 of the procedures cited in the case against Dr. Patel were performance at the hospital, Lafayette General Medical Center. Federal officials concluded that executives with the facility knew the procedures were unnecessary, but failed to stop Dr. Patel from performing them. The case against Dr. Patel himself is still pending.
To find out more about the case:
- read this article from The Daily Advertiser
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