Indian-American doctor charged with $9.5-mn healthcare fraud

He defrauded Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of more than $9 million by performing drug tests he never used to treat his patients.

WASHINGTON: An Indian-American doctor in Alabama has been charged with healthcare fraud of $9.5 million through illegally conducted tests and prescribing controlled substances for illegitimate purposes.

Shelinder Aggarwal, 48, pled guilty to the charges. In the plea, he agreed to forfeit his former clinic on Turner Street Southwest in Huntsville, along with $6.7 million, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Aggarwal had earlier repaid $2.8 million to Medicare and $45,843 to Blue Cross after audits, according to his plea agreement.

The agreement stipulates a 15-year prison sentence. A federal judge must accept the terms of the agreement before it is final.

The doctor has been charged with one count of distributing a controlled substance outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose in July 2012 and with one count of conspiring to execute a healthcare fraud scheme against Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama.

According to the justice department, Aggarwal surrendered his medical license in 2013, along with his federal Drug Enforcement Administration certificates to prescribe controlled substances, after the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners initiated an investigation.

“Shelinder Aggarwal treated his medical license like a license to deal opiate drugs,” US attorney White Vance said.

“He also defrauded Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of more than $9 million by performing drug tests he never used to treat his patients. Thanks to this prosecution, Aggarwal is no longer a drug dealer masquerading as a doctor,” he said.

“According to the court papers, Aggarwal was a pain management doctor who operated chronic pain care services in Huntsville. PTI