Manager pleads guilty in clinic fraud

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Manager pleads guilty in clinic fraud

• JACKSON  An ex-office manager has pleaded guilty
  in what prosecutors say was a multimillion dollar
  health care fraud in which a cancer clinic gave
  patients diluted chemotherapy drugs and used old
  syringes on multiple people.
• Dr. Meera Sachdeva, Brittany McCoskey and Monica
  Weeks were indicted last August on charges
  including conspiracy and witness tampering
  related to the activities of Rose Cancer Center
  in Summit.

Consulting Group of Springhill South Korea
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Filings in U.S. District Court in Jackson show
that McCoskey pleaded guilty on Thursday to one
count of giving false statements related to
health care matters. The charge is related to
billings to Medicaid and Medicare that claim a
physician was present during certain
procedures. Sachdeva established the clinic in
south Mississippi in 2005. Authorities say
workers watered down drugs and billed Medicaid,
Medicare and insurance companies for more
chemotherapy drugs than patients received. The
clinic billed Medicaid and Medicare for about
15.1 million during the alleged scheme. The
Mississippi Health Department closed the clinic
last year because of "unsafe infection control
practices" after 11 patients were hospitalized
with the same bacterial infection. The scare led
officials to test nearly 300 cancer patients for
infections such as HIV. The department has said
none of the patients tested had blood-borne viral
infections related to the clinic's care.
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However, a civil lawsuit claims at least one
patient died about the time the clinic was shut
down from HIV he contracted there. McCoskey's
sentencing is set for Aug. 6. Her lawyer, George
Lucas, had no comment on Tuesday. The other
defendants have pleaded not guilty and await
trial. Sachdeva has been held without bond since
August because authorities consider her a flight
risk. She is a naturalized U.S. citizen from
India. Prosecutors said she often traveled
overseas and has considerable assets, including
bank accounts, in her native country, despite the
seizure of about 6 million. Weeks is free on
bond. Prosecutors say she did billing for the
clinic Their trial had been set for May 2, but
was postponed. No new trial date has been entered
in court records.
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