Reading the Angiogram

A cardiologist at a hospital in a small Kentucky city placed coronary stents in many patients. Prosecutors alleged that he systematically overstated the percentage of arterial blockage he recorded from angiograms in order to justify stents that were medically unnecessary, and then billed Medicare and Medicaid for the procedures. A jury convicted him on one health care fraud count and ten false-statement counts, but the trial judge entered a judgment of acquittal, and the government appealed. The defence argued that the degree of blockage seen on an angiogram is a subjective medical opinion, not a fact that can be proved true or false, so his readings could not amount to fraud or false statements.