by WorldTribune Staff, December 18, 2024 Real World News
Among the 1,500 prison sentences commuted by Joe Biden last week was Shelinder Aggarwal, a former Huntsville, Alabama physician who federal prosecutors said was running a “pill mill” that “directly contributed” to the U.S. opioid epidemic.
In 2017, Aggarwal was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for illegally prescribing controlled substances and conducting health care fraud involving $9.5 million in unneeded and unused urine tests, AL.com reported.
Aggarwal’s 2017 plea agreement summarized an interaction with a patient, which was captured on video. In it, Aggarwal notes that the DEA viewed him as the “biggest pill-pusher in north Alabama” and that many of his patients were “dropping like flies; they are all dying.”
Related: Pardons watch, continued: Biden commutes sentence of comptroller who stole $53 million from Illinois town, December 16, 2024
In 2012, Alabama pharmacies filled more than 110,000 of Aggarwal’s prescriptions for controlled substances, according to the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). That adds up to 12.3 million pills, equal to about 423 prescriptions per day if Aggarwal worked five days a week.
The PDMP 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.
“Dr. Aggarwal used his medical license to generate tremendous profits by putting hundreds of thousands of pills on the street illegally,” said former Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Robert Posey.
In 2017, FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton said: “This defendant directly contributed to the opioid epidemic that is plaguing our nation. He also cost taxpayers millions of dollars by fraudulently claiming government reimbursement for thousands of lab tests that he never used to treat patients. I applaud the work of my agents and our partners to shut down Aggarwal’s pill mill and hold him accountable for his actions.”
Aggarwal was a pain management doctor who operated Chronic Pain Care Services in Huntsville. In 2012, about 80 to 145 patients a day visited Aggarwal’s clinic, according to previous investigations which found initial patient visits typically lasted five minutes or less, and follow-ups two minutes or less.
According to investigators, 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.
Records reviewed by FOX54, which confirmed that the Aggarwal listed on the clemency list was former doctor, show he is at a halfway house in Montgomery and is set to be released on Dec. 22.
Timely: Defund Fake News
The American Free Press is Back!
Pardons watch: Biden commutes sentence of doctor dubbed ‘biggest pill pusher in north Alabama’ added by Editor Two on December 18, 2024
View all posts by Editor Two →
Source link