"Westmoreland Regional Hospital Admits Drs. Morcos and Bousamra in the Wrong"

Recently Westmoreland Regional Hospital Admitted that Drs Morcos and Bousamra were in the wrong in inserting unneeded heart stents in over 140 heart patients in 2010. These procedures were performed at Westmoreland Regional Hospital.
Westmoreland Regional Hospital in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, owned by Excela Health, operates a cardiac catherization center. Drs. Morcos and Bousamra were two of the interventional cardiologists who had staff privileges to perform catherization procedures during the year 2010.
On March 3, 2010, Excela Health's CEO Robert Rogalski, publicly apologized in a news conference stating, "We would like to apologize to the patients who received coronary stents that may not have been necessary." In a subsequent Pittsburgh Tribune Review article Mr. Rogalski acknowledged: "This should never have happened. There's no excuse for it." In a letter sent to patients that same day, Jerome Granato, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Excela informed patients that Drs, Morcos and Bousamra performed coronary stent procedures that, "may not have been medically necessary", indicating that the "perceived"blockage in these patients arteries may not have justified the placement of a coronary stent.
While multiple lawsuits have been launched against these doctors, their practice group, Westmoreland County Cardiology, Inc., as well as Excela, many questions remain unanswered, including, For how many years has this been going on? How many other patients are involved? What are the injuries to these patients, both long and short term? How much money did Excela make over the years from patient admissions related to these unnecessary procedures? Why did Excela come out in a very public way and acknowledge this problem? Why now? Were other cardiologists threatening to sound the alarm? Who manufactured and supplied the stents and what was their relationship to Drs. Morcos and Bousamra? Are other hospitals experiencing similar situations? Are these unnecessary medical procedures limited to stents?
According to a 2010 report published by the United States Senate Committee on Finance investigating unneeded stent procedures, between 2004 and 2009 Medicare Part A paid approximately $26 billion dollars for approximately 2 million inpatient stays where the patient's principal diagnosis was heart-related and the patient received a cardiac stent. This does not count the amount of money paid by private insurers. According to the Committee from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Medicare DRG system (diagnosis related groups) pays hospitals a set fee for each diagnosis, regardless of how much the individual patient actually costs the hospital. One can easily see how hospital stays related to stent procedures can be big business for hospitals and medical device manufacturers.