$66.5 Million Settlement for 262 Patients Given Unnecessary Cardiac Procedures by Indiana Cardiologist

For years, patients in northwest Indiana trusted a well-known local cardiologist with their most serious health decisions. Dr. Arvind Gandhi practiced with Cardiology Associates of Northwest Indiana P.C. (CANI) and performed procedures at Community Hospital of Munster. What those patients did not know, according to lawsuits filed beginning in October 2014, was that a substantial number of the cardiac devices implanted in them and the surgeries performed on them were not medically warranted.

The core allegations were stark: Gandhi and his associates at CANI had performed and billed for unnecessary pacemaker implantations, defibrillator implantations, open-heart surgeries, angiograms, and stentings. The financial incentives built into reimbursement structures for those high-dollar procedures were central to the plaintiffs' theory of the case. Community Hospital faced separate claims that it had prioritized revenue over patient safety by allowing unqualified or unchecked physicians to perform the procedures.

Cohen and Malad, working alongside co-counsel Theodoros and Rooth P.C. of Merrillville, filed the first wave of claims in October 2014. The docket grew rapidly. By 2016, the number of complaints had reached close to 300. The cases proceeded through the Indiana Department of Insurance medical review panel process required under state law before litigation in Lake County courts. Of 31 cases that completed panel review, 18 panels, or roughly 58 percent, concluded that Gandhi or his associates had performed procedures that were not medically necessary. That rate was dramatically higher than Indiana's statewide average of 9 to 11 percent of panels finding in favor of plaintiffs.

Gandhi announced his retirement in 2014, shortly after the first lawsuits became public. The first jury verdict against him came in December 2015, and litigation continued for years across individual cases. One illustrative example: a patient underwent pacemaker implantation in February 2008 and had the device removed six years later, in February 2014, after a subsequent evaluation determined it had never been medically indicated.

After six years of litigation, the parties reached a global resolution. On November 10, 2020, a $66.5 million settlement was announced covering 262 patients. The settlement was funded in part by the defendants' insurance carrier and in part by the Indiana Patient's Compensation Fund. Terms were otherwise confidential. Gandhi and the other defendants denied any wrongdoing. The settlement stands as the financial resolution of a case that, by the numbers in its own medical review panels, presented an unusually consistent pattern of panel findings favoring injured patients.