LAFAYETTE, La. A hospital agreed to pay $7.4 million to settle its part of a class-action suit accusing a cardiologist of doing unnecessary angioplasties and other procedures.
Half of the amount will be shared by 305 former patients, meaning each will get about $12,000. The rest will pay litigation costs and attorneys' fees in the suit against Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center.
Attorney James Ryan said attorneys are still seeking damages from the cardiologist himself, Dr.
Mehmood M. Patel, and from Lafayette General Medical Center, where he also practiced.
Ryan did not immediately return a message seeking information Wednesday on how many patients claim they underwent unnecessary procedures at Lafayette General and at Patel's clinic, Acadiana Cardiology LLC.
Patel _ charged in federal court with billing Medicare, Medicaid and insurance companies $2.5 million for unnecessary procedures on 77 patients _ denies the allegations and expects to be vindicated at trial, his attorney, J. Michael Small, said Wednesday.
He said he would object to prosecutors' have attempts to present evidence of unnecessary procedures on another 83 patients not named in the indictment.
Patel could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. A trial date has not been set.
Last year, Our Lady of Lourdes agreed to pay the U.S. Justice Department $3.
8 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that it failed to act on complaints by one of Patel's associates.
State District Judge Byron Hebert approved the latest settlement this week.
Prosecutors said last year in court papers that in addition to the cases cited in the indictment, they planned to present evidence of allegedly unnecessary procedures on as many as 200 more patients.
A lawyer for Patel, Michael Small, called the filing of additional evidence "a classic example of government overkill." He has said his client intends to vigorously fight the allegations.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
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