FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) - A federal lawsuit filed by a heart patient and a doctor accuses St. Edward Mercy Medical Center and a surgeon of performing unnecessary heart surgeries to defraud Medicare and other federal health programs.
The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Little Rock, names the Fort Smith hospital and Dr. David Mark McCoy. An amended complaint was filed Thursday; the original lawsuit was filed under seal last year.
Former patient Paul Montgomery of Fort Smith filed the complaint, along with cardiologist Lonnie Harrison. The federal government also is listed as a plaintiff; the suit accused the hospital and McCoy of violating the Federal False Claims Act.
The lawsuit says Montgomery underwent unnecessary heart surgery, and complications from that procedure led to the amputation of his leg.
"From April 1999, and earlier, McCoy knowingly, systematically, routinely and repeatedly submitted false claims to and received reimbursements from Medicare and other federal health care programs for medically unnecessary cardiac and vascular surgical procedures, including but not limited to coronary bypass grafting and lower extremity bypass grafting," the complaint said. "As a result of these false claims, McCoy fraudulently obtained payments from Medicare and other federal health programs to which he was not entitled."
The lawsuit claims that St. Edward knew McCoy was performing unnecessary surgeries.
"St. Edward's recognition in 1999 as a top heart hospital, however, was accomplished through improper practices and at the expense of patients' health and safety," the lawsuit said.
The hospital issued a statement Friday, saying it had done no wrong.
"St. Edward Mercy has high standards related to clinical quality and patient safety and once the facts of the claim are fully reviewed and understood, we believe that it will be shown that St. Edward Mercy has provided appropriate and necessary care," the statement read.
Harrison, a former cardiologist at St. Edward, often saw patients after McCoy performed surgery, the lawsuit said. In one instance, McCoy had bypassed five arteries on a patient; Harrison said three of the vessels were bypassed needlessly, the complaint said.
A separate lawsuit involving Montgomery and McCoy was decided in Sebastian County Circuit Court earlier this year. In March, a jury awarded Montgomery and his wife $3.3 million in a case that claimed McCoy was negligent in his treatment of Montgomery. That decision is under appeal.
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