MD stent doctor sentenced to federal prison

John R. McLean, a Salisbury physician, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison Thursday, making him the second cardiologist in the country to face incarceration for implanting unnecessary coronary stents in dozens of patients, then fraudulently billing insurers thousands for the work. A Louisiana doctor was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2009 under similar allegations. And a half-dozen other physicians, including Towson's Dr. Mark G. Midei, are accused in civil lawsuits of overusing stents, though they have not been charged criminally. "I conclude, sadly, that this was a crime of greed," U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. said of McLean's actions, which include falsifying patient records at Peninsula Regional Medical Center to justify the expensive procedures, then prescribing gratuitous follow-up tests for months afterward.