Judges sentencing doctors convicted of implanting medically unnecessary coronary artery stents are not messing around. On Thursday U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. called overstenting by Dr. John McLean "a crime of greed" and gave him eight years in prison. McLean was convicted of falsifying patient records in connection with needless stents put in at Peninsula Regional Medical Center on the Eastern Shore.

The hospital itself settled recently with the government without admitting liability. But in an August news release U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said there was a "failure of senior medical staff at PRMC to follow up on evidence presented to them through the complaints of staff in the cardiac catheterization laboratory about the medically unnecessary nature of the procedures that Dr. McLean was performing."

Also this week Dr. Mehmood Patel in Louisiana appealed his 10-year sentence for installing unneeded stents. From the Advertiser.com:

A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn't immediately rule after hearing arguments in Dr. Mehmood Patel's case.

In December 2008, a jury convicted Patel of 51 counts of health care fraud but acquitted him of 40 other counts.

Prosecutors say Patel lied to patients about their medical conditions, performed risky tests and procedures, falsified medical records to make them appear justified and then fraudulently billed insurance companies for the work.