Heart Stents and Upcoding: How Cardiologists Game the System

Cardiologists can criminally game the system by telling a patient they have a much more serious, unstable disease than they really have, upcoding fraud that results in unnecessary procedures, unnecessary cost, and unnecessary patient harm.

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Damn, cardiologists criminally gaming the system by lying to patients for personal gain. What about all the people who then die on the table or have a massive stroke? How do the doctors sleep at night? I’m pretty cynical when it comes to much of modern medicine, but even this through me for a loop. And, it was just so brazenly discussed and dismissed in the journals. “Yeah, we know this happens. Oh well.” Just goes to show what happens when there’s so much money in the mix!

This was the final video in my seven-part series on stents. If you missed any, check out:
• Do Angioplasty Heart Stent Procedures Work? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/do-an...)
• Why Angioplasty Heart Stents Don’t Work Better (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/why-a...)
• The Risks of Heart Stents (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-r...)
• Angioplasty Heart Stent Risks vs. Benefits (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/angio...)
• Do Heart Stent Procedures Work for Angina Chest Pain? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/do-he...)
• Why Are Stents Still Used If They Don’t Work? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/why-a...)

As I say over and over in this video series, during a heart attack, in an acute setting, angioplasty can be life-saving. As I reiterate, when I’m talking about stable CAD, I’m talking nonemergency situations. In an upcoming series I talk about pros and cons of statin drug therapy. Spoiler: If you have a history of heart disease or stroke, taking a statin is recommended. All of these videos, including the upcoming statin series, are available on a digital download of a webinar I did last year. You can find it here: https://drgreger.org/collections/vide...

UPDATE: A new meta-analysis was just published last month and alas, there is still zero survival benefit to stent placement for stable coronary artery disease, but at least there were fewer heart attacks. Since this still didn’t translate into actually living any longer, the foundation of treatment remains medical and lifestyle management. Hat tip to Dr. Bitterman! (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33742...)

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-Michael Greger, MD FACLM

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