Five area doctors charged in pill mill case at addiction clinic
Five Pittsburgh-area doctors doled out Suboxone to addicts for cash at addiction clinics in Washington County and West Virginia where they worked as contract employees, according to federal investigators.
Indictments unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh and in West Virginia named Krishan Aggarwal, 73, and his wife, Mudha Aggarwal, 68, of Moon; Cherian John, 65, of Coraopolis; Parth Bharill, 69, of Pittsburgh; and Michael Bummer, 38, of Sewickley.
All were connected with Redirections Treatment Advocates, a treatment center based in Washington, Pa., with locations in Bridgeville and the West Virginia cities of Morgantown, Moundsville and Weirton.
The investigation became public in January, when the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services raided the clinics.
Christopher Handa, 47, director of operations, was later indicted on counts of conspiracy to distribute Suboxone, which is used to treat addicts, and submitting bills to Medicaid and Medicare for payments to cover the costs of the drugs.
Suboxone, a brand name, is a combination of buprenorphine, a relatively mild opioid, and naltrexone, which blocks other opioids from acting on the brain’s receptors. Experienced opioid users don’t experience a high from Suboxone, but it prevents them from going into withdrawal. So some users buy Suboxone to keep from going into withdrawal during periods in which they can’t find heroin. And some try to manage their own recoveries by purchasing Suboxone on the streets.
The doctors, who were under contract at Redirections, are charged with similar crimes at the facilities where they worked.
Dr. Krishan Aggarwal and Dr. John, for example, are accused of authorizing Mr. Handa and others to fax prescriptions for Suboxone for patients who had no medical need for it and then billing insurance for the costs.
In the case of Dr. Bharill, who worked at the Morgantown office, the grand jury said he provided pre-signed blank prescriptions to Mr. Handa, who then completed the dosage information without the doctor being in the office.
Dr. Bummer is accused of the same at the Washington office and Dr. Mudhu Aggarwal at the Bridgeville office.
Dr. Krishan Aggarwal, Dr. Bharill and Dr. John are all charged in the northern district of West Virginia because they worked at the clinics there; their cases will be heard in Clarksburg, W.Va. The other two are indicted in Pittsburgh because they worked at clinics in Washington County.
U.S. marshals hauled them all into federal court Thursday in handcuffs. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Mitchell released them on $50,000 bonds and let them return to work.
All had just been appointed lawyers or said they would retain their own lawyers. Mr. Handa’s lawyer, Ralph Karsh, has refused comment on the investigation.
Dr. Bummer’s lawyer, Efrem Grail, said his client and his family are “deeply concerned by the grand jury’s charges. We look forward to reviewing the evidence.”
The case is being brought as part of a Justice Department program called the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, announced last summer to track and prosecute health care professionals who illegally deal drugs and contribute to the nation’s opioid crisis.
Several other unrelated cases are also being prosecuted in this district under the initiative, which relies on data analysis and other tools to track doctors who over-prescribe.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also assigned a dozen prosecutors in each of 12 “hot spot” districts around the country where the opioid crisis was most acute. Pittsburgh was one of them; the special prosecutor here is Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cessar.
The first case in the nation since the creation of the national unit was a local doctor, Andrzej Zielke, 62, of Hampton, who operated Medical Frontiers in the Richland Mall. He is under indictment here on charges of running a pill mill.
Federal agents, who had been investigating Dr. Zielke since 2014, said he was doling out prescriptions to addicts for cash, including at least one who died of an overdose.
The DEA estimates that eight of 10 heroin addicts in the U.S. started out as prescription painkiller abusers.
Mr. Cessar and his boss, U.S. Attorney Scott Brady, said the administration’s efforts are geared towards finding the “outliers” among doctors and other healthcare professionals who are fueling addiction for their own benefit.
“We want to attack this epidemic with all of the tools in our arsenal,” said Mr. Brady.
Filed under: General Problems
“buprenorphine, a relatively mild opioid”
Huh? Since when is an opioid that is roughly 40 to 50 times more potent than morphine a “relatively mild opioid?”
(For the record, I have no issues with recovering addicts being treated with opioids that can help control their cravings. That should be a decision between them and their doctor. I do have issues with the double standard and hypocrisy of treating recovering addicts with prescription opioids, which is a class of medication originally approved to reduce physical pain) while denying that same class of medication to those who are in legitimate physical pain.)
I worked for American Addiction Centers up until the end of 2012. Specifically in the detox house. I think for all the intelligence like Jeff Sessions supposedly has should know that you can definitely get high on Suboxone. It just goes to show that they only are concerned with the money they can get their hands on. Suboxone works on the same receptors that kratom does but there’s a huge witch hunt for those who want to treat their pain or their withdrawal more naturally. Suboxone should only be used for 1week- 7days with each dose lower than the previous one so that those getting off heroin or methadone can do so with less pain and less chance of creating yet another addiction.