Shelinder Aggarwal, a former Huntsville pill mill doctor sentenced to 15 years in prison as the "highest prescriber in the U.S. of Schedule II controlled substances" at one point, is among the nearly 1,500 pardons and commutations issued by President Joe Biden last week.
On Thursday, in his final weeks as president, Biden granted a mass wave of clemency, consisting of 39 pardons and 1,499 commutations in what the White House claimed was "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history." The White House reported that the individuals granted clemency were placed in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and had "successfully reintegrated into their families and communities."
The grantees included a federal judge indicted for taking kickbacks from prison executives to over-sentence juveniles in specific facilities. Others included criminals convicted of hundreds of millions in fraud of various kinds, drug kingpins, and Aggarwal, the former Huntsville doctor self-described as viewed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as the "biggest pill-pusher in North Alabama."
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Alabama, Aggarwal operated a pain management clinic in Huntsville, sometimes seeing 80-145 patients daily. In that era, pain management clinics that overprescribed opiates were often called "pill mills."
In an interaction with a patient captured on video, Aggarwal noted 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."
According to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) for Alabama, pharmacies filled about 110,013 of Aggarwal's prescriptions for controlled substances in 2012, accounting for 12.3 million pills. The PDMP listed Aggarwal as the highest prescriber of controlled substances in Alabama in 2012, with the next highest prescriber writing a third as many prescriptions.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Medicare data showed Aggarwal was the "highest prescriber in the United States of Schedule II controlled substances under Medicare in 2012." Schedule II substances include the opioid painkillers oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydromorphone and morphine.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton said at the time that Aggarwal "directly contributed to the opioid epidemic that is plaguing our nation."
He also participated in a healthcare scheme that involved unreasonable and unnecessary urine drug tests so he could over-bill insurance companies. Between January 2011 and March 2013, urine drug tests accounted for about 80 percent of paid claims Aggarwal submitted to Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield for a total reimbursement of $9.5 million.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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