Doctors Embrace Euphemism for Annual $2.4 Billion Useless Stents
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The American College of Cardiology is changing its guidelines for when implanting coronary stents is appropriate -- by banishing the term “inappropriate.”
Next year, the main U.S. heart-doctor group will remove the word it has used since 2009 to describe cases where people don’t need the metal-mesh tubes in their blood vessels. The label has become a liability in treatment disputes with insurers and regulators, said Robert Hendel, who led the effort that updated the wording.