Kathmandu. Neel K Anand, a 48-year-old Indian-origin doctor, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for health insurance fraud.
Anand, a Pennsylvania doctor, defrauded insurance companies of $2.4 million by supplying unnecessary medicines to patients. The court also ordered him to pay more than $2 million in restitution and forfeit the same amount.
Anand has been accused of administering unnecessary drugs to patients and writing pre-signed prescriptions for controlled drugs to unlicensed interns. To evade investigation, Anand deposited the fraudulent money in a relative’s account. He said he treated the victims of the 9÷11 attacks and served as a doctor in the US Navy. However, the judge rejected his argument. The judge held that Dr Anand’s actions were motivated by greed and illicit gains.
According to court documents, Anand made false and fraudulent claims to insurance plans such as Medicare, the Office of American Employee Management (OPM), Independence Bluecross (IBC) and Anthem. He distributed “goodie bags” of unnecessary drugs, including drugs like oxycodone, to patients through his home pharmacy.
Anand distributed oxycodone without medical necessity to lure patients. In total, he prescribed 20,850 oxycodone tablets to nine patients.
In addition, Anand allowed unlicensed medical interns to prescribe controlled drugs on pre-signed prescriptions. Which was illegal. In this whole conspiracy, he defrauded the insurance companies of more than $ 24 million. Judge Chad F. Kenney said, “For Dr. Anand, the pain of the patients was profitable. His focus was not on treatment. ’
Anand and his family have denied the allegations. They claim compassion for patients has been unfairly criminalised. “The US government is punishing me for using AI to treat patients with chronic pain and manipulate my data,” Anand wrote on his blog. ’
Anand also claims to have treated victims of the 9÷11 attacks and served as a doctor in the US Navy. However, the court rejected his claim. Many social media groups supported Anand, claiming that he was the victim of a government conspiracy.
“The law has ruled for now. However, questions remain. What is treatment? What is justice? Where is the line between compassion and abuse?”
