LEWISTON – St. Mary Regional Medical Center may have violated state law when it started offering its angioplasty heart treatment at the start of the year, state licensing officials have told the hospital.

In a Feb. 6 letter, Bill Perfetto, assistant director of financial services at the Department of Human Services, wrote, “The provision of this interventional cardiology service is not approved by the department.”

A spokesman for St. Mary’s said the hospital plans to continue performing angioplasties despite the agency’s concerns.

Sean Findlen, St. Mary’s spokesman, said hospital officials did not believe a state Certificate of Need, or CON, was required in order to perform angioplasty. The procedure involves inserting a tiny balloon into a narrowed artery and pumping it up in an effort to boost blood flow.

State law says a CON is needed for either a new medical program or a major financial investment, or both. Findlen said hospital advisers concluded it was neither.

“We had our legal counsel look over the CON law and what we were doing,” he said.

About two years ago, St. Mary’s secured state approval to upgrade its 14-year-old cardiac catheterization lab, where doctors can measure the extent of artery blockage by inserting a probe.

In his letter, Perfetto said the state’s OK for that new equipment did not include approval of the new angioplasty procedure.

Findlen said hospital officials never linked the two things. The decision to hire a doctor to perform angioplasties did not occur until after the lab was retrofitted with the new imaging equipment last fall, he said.

In his letter, Perfetto urged hospital officials to meet with him “as soon as possible” to review projected operating costs and patient volumes, among other information.

In addition, he said, DHS officials have “serious health concerns” about the hospital’s plans to transfer patients with serious heart problems to Maine Medical Center in Portland, a half-hour away, rather than to nearby Central Maine Medical Center.

Findlen said Friday a meeting with Perfetto is planned for mid-March.

St. Mary’s doctors have performed “a handful of successful” angioplasties over the last 1 months. “We plan to continue performing” them, Findlen said.

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