Doctor Charged with Diluting Chemo and Reusing Needles to Defraud Medicare

An oncologist pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing millions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid by diluting chemotherapy drugs and reusing old needles on multiple patients. Dr. Meera Sachdeva, the 50-year-old founder of of Rose Cancer Center in Summitt Miss. is charged with giving patients less chemotherapy or cheaper drugs than they were told and billing Medicare and Medicaid more. Prosecutors alleges as well that they clinic billed for new syringes for each patient while some were reused on multiple people. The Mississippi Health department closed the clinic in July due to unsafe infection control practices after 11 patients went to hospitals with the same bacterial infection. Those officials are in the process of testing hundreds of patients for HIV and other diseases because of concerns of contamination from dirty needles. The clinic billed for 142,200 milligrams of Ervitux even though it had purchased only 45,100 milligrams say court records. The doctor has been held without bail since her arrest in August as she is considered a flight risk.