{"id":26747,"date":"2016-09-23T12:13:14","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T19:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=26747"},"modified":"2016-09-23T12:15:35","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T19:15:35","slug":"pill-mill-doctor-charged-with-illegally-prescribing-drugs-health-fraud-totaling-9-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=26747","title":{"rendered":"Pill Mill Doctor Charged with Illegally Prescribing Drugs, Health Fraud Totaling $9 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALABAMA<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged a former north Alabama physician, who was the nation\u2019s highest Medicare prescriber of opioid painkillers at the height of his practice, with illegally prescribing controlled substances and with a health care fraud involving $9.5 million in unneeded and unused urine tests, officials announced Friday.<\/p>\n

\"Courtroom\"Federal charges were filed against Shelinder Aggarwal<\/strong>, 48, of Huntsville, Alabama, with one count of distributing a controlled substance outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose in July 2012.<\/p>\n

He was also charged with one count of conspiring to execute a health care fraud scheme against Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama between Jan. 1, 2011, and March 31, 2013.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also filed a plea agreement with Aggarwal in which he agrees that he will plead guilty to the charges and forfeit his former clinic on Turner Street Southwest in Huntsville, along with $6.7 million.<\/p>\n

The agreement stipulates a 15-year prison sentence, according to officials.<\/p>\n

Click here to read: Plea Agreement<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Aggarwal earlier repaid $2.8 million to Medicare and $45,843 to Blue Cross following audits, according to his plea agreement.<\/p>\n

Aggarwal surrendered his Alabama medical license in 2013, along with his Alabama and federal Drug Enforcement Administration certificates to prescribe controlled substances, after the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners initiated an investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cShelinder Aggarwal treated his medical license like a license to deal opiate drugs,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cHe also defrauded Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of more than $9 million dollars by performing drug tests he never used to treat his patients. \u00a0Thanks to this prosecution, Aggarwal is no longer a drug dealer masquerading as a doctor. ”<\/p>\n

Adding, “His pill mill is closed, he must repay the money he stole from health insurers and he will serve time for his crimes.\u00a0 I am grateful to our prosecutors and the investigators who brought this individual to justice.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Aggarwal was a pain management doctor who operated Chronic Pain Care Services<\/strong> in Huntsville. \u00a0His medical practice was a pill mill, according to the charges and plea agreement.<\/p>\n

To read the charges click here: \u00a0Federal Charges<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The documents state that in 2012, about 80 to 145 patients a day visited Aggarwal\u2019s clinic, with Aggarwal seeing the majority of the patients and writing all prescriptions. \u00a0Initial patient visits typically lasted five minutes or less, and follow-ups two minutes or less.<\/p>\n

The documents state that Aggarwal did not obtain prior medical records for his patients, did not treat patients with anything other than controlled substances, often asked patients what medications they wanted and filled their requests, prescribed controlled substances to patients who he knew were using illegal drugs and did not take appropriate measures to ensure that patients did not divert or abuse controlled substances.<\/p>\n

The plea agreement summarizes an interaction with a patient, which was captured on video.<\/p>\n

In it, Aggarwal notes that the DEA viewed him as the \u201cbiggest pill-pusher in North Alabama\u201d and that many of his patients were \u201cdropping like flies, they are all dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The documents cite the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program for Alabama, which tracks the dispensing of controlled substances, as well as Medicare data, to document Aggarwal\u2019s prescribing practices.<\/p>\n

According to the Drug Monitoring Program, Alabama pharmacies filled about 110,013 of Aggarwal\u2019s prescriptions for controlled substances in 2012. \u00a0That would equal about 423 prescriptions per day if he worked five days a week, and resulted in about 12.3 million pills.<\/p>\n

The Drug Monitoring Program rated Aggarwal as the highest prescriber of controlled substances filled in Alabama in 2012, with the next highest prescriber writing a third as many prescriptions.<\/p>\n

Medicare data shows Aggarwal was the highest prescriber in the United States of Schedule II controlled substances under Medicare in 2012. \u00a0Schedule II substances include the opioid painkillers oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydromorphone and morphine.<\/p>\n

As to Aggarwal\u2019s health care fraud scheme, he is charged with requiring patients to undergo unreasonable and unnecessary urine drug tests that he did not need or use in their treatment.<\/p>\n

According to the documents, the tests he ran depended not on patients\u2019 treatment, but on how much he could bill for tests. \u00a0Aggarwal often ignored urine test results showing patients were using illegal drugs, the documents state.<\/p>\n

Between January 2011 and March 2013, urine drug tests accounted for about 80 percent of paid claims Aggarwal submitted to Medicare and Blue Cross, for a total reimbursement of $9.5 million.<\/p>\n

According to his charges and plea agreement, \u201cAggarwal\u2019s primary motivation for testing patients\u2019 urine specimens, and submitting those claims for payment, was financial gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

(TV News Report)<\/p>\n