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Manufactured for Money
Dr. George Martindale blinked, shifted his body in his chair and kept his voice steady with frequent sips of water. It was an October afternoon two years ago, and Martindale sat across from attorney Daniel Mulholland in a Marriott hotel meeting room in Mobile, Alabama. The deposition seemed more like two friends discussing trends in medicine than a legal proceeding. But a whole lot was at stake.
Martindale's name was on several thousand documents claiming people suffered from an incurable work-related respiratory disease. Mulholland asked Martindale if he had ever intended his work to be used as an official diagnosis in a lawsuit or for any other purpose."No, sir," he replied.
In a gentle Southern drawl, Martindale went on to explain his role in what a federal court concluded was a massive legal scam. He had expanded his radiology practice by becoming a certified "B-reader," which meant his evaluations of chest x-rays could be used in court. Martindale was providing his assessments to N&M, a screening company in Pascagoula, Mississippi, run by a junior college dropout that administered tests to diagnose silicosis or asbestosis, two unrelated diseases at the heart of a nationwide explosion of lawsuits.
Martindale was focused mainly on silicosis, which can result from workers breathing in tiny particles of sand dust (asbestosis -- and the related cancer, mesothelioma -- is caused by inhaling fine particles of asbestos, once widely used in products like textiles and insulation). He would read the x-rays, at a rate of 30 or more per hour, and then send the completed packets back to N&M. At $35 per reading, he was taking in over $1,000 an hour.
N&M took the forms and produced documents that appeared to be custom diagnoses but were actually just form letters with a few blanks filled in. The doctor never saw the finished reports and didn't even sign them -- N&M affixed his name with a rubber signature stamp.
"I had no medical relationship with the patient, and N&M owned the x-ray, owned the report," he explained.
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