Another Doctor Convicted of Fraud for Unneeded Heart Surgery: Why Not Assault?A doctor does unneeded heart surgery on a hundred patients and he's charged with...fraud? He took a knife to people. Under any other circumstances, he'd be tried for assault.by Heidi Stevenson29 July 2011 
In Baltimore, Maryland, Cardiologist John R. McLean was convicted of fraud in six charges of filing false insurance claims for doing heart stent implants. I would have no problem with that, if only he had charged for services not performed. But that isn't what happened. McLean actually performed these dangerous procedures. McLean quite literally attacked each of these patients, causing severe bodily harm. But all our system of jurisprudence can see is the fraud. They pay lip service to the harm done to patients, using it as the excuse to drum up anger—but doing absolutely nothing for the people harmed. Could anything more starkly demonstrate the utter depravity of a system of healthcare that values money over the welfare of patients? Even the US government's intent to recover the money paid McLean—$711,583!—will do nothing for the patients. That money is slated for government coffers. Not a penny would go to the victims. There are plenty of victims. Evidence given during the two-week trial suggests that McLean had performed unnecessary cardiac catheterizations and implanted unneeded stents in at least 100 patients. If anyone else had done something like this—had knowingly used a knife on another human being for the purpose of extracting money from an interested party—what would we have called it? Assault, of course! The intent to extract money from another person might result in a charge of fraud, but everyone's focus would have been on the attack. But McLean wasn't charged with assault against his patients. They are being treated as nothing but objects—no better than if they'd been pets subjected to unneeded procedures. (Perhaps worse, in fact.) These are human beings who were lied to and made to fear that they were at risk of death if they didn't submit to dangerous procedures that, in light of not being needed, amounted to physical attacks on them. The patients are considered so unimportant that we don't even know their current condition. Did any of them suffer permanent harm? Are any suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome over their experiences? How much pain did they suffer? In this healthcare system, the patients don't count for anything but objects on which to profit. It's all about money. Forget that at your own peril. ***************************************************************************** *****************************************************************************
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