If convicted, Mohanty faces life imprisonment, $10 million fine.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: An Indian American physician in Virginia, Nibedita Mohanty, who was arrested in May of 2013, has been indicted in federal court in Alexandria, and faces 20 years to life in prison, apart from a $10 million fine, if found guilty of the most serious charges – which includes the death of a patient.
Mohanty ran a lucrative ‘pill mill’ under the guise of treating chronic pain, in Stafford, Virginia, and which ultimately led to a patient’s fatal overdose, reported The Washington Post.
Hundreds of patients of Mohanty, 56, the former chief of medicine at Stafford Hospital, were given excessive prescriptions for addictive medications despite warnings that the drugs were being abused, distributed and resold, a grand jury concluded. She served as hospital chief from June 2009 to February 2013, according to the indictment, and represented herself as a doctor working in chronic pain management.
According to the Post report, Mohanty prescribed narcotic pills to patients who had been jailed for selling controlled substances and even to someone who, she was explicitly told, would sell the drugs to pay another patient’s bond, the indictment alleges.
Although a letter from another doctor warned that one patient had a history of painkiller addiction and was attempting to stay off of them, Mohanty gave her prescriptions for OxyContin, Percocet and Dilaudid, the indictment alleges. After the patient was hospitalized for an overdose, Mohanty discharged her and, less than two weeks later, prescribed more painkillers. The patient died of an oxycodone overdose the next day, reported the Post.
A WUSA9 report said the Department of Justice said Mohanty had prescribed 760 oxycodone 30 mg tablets to the same patient in May of 2011. The oxycodone dispensed by Mohanty allegedly caused the patient’s death on June 1st. Officials report that other patients suffered serious bodily injury through non-fatal overdoses.
Mohanty “rapidly and randomly increased the dosages” of patients’ drugs, according to the indictment, inducing them to regularly pay $250 cash for appointments. She installed a swimming pool in her home, paying in cash.
The WUSA9 report said Mohanty has been indicted on one count of participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances; one count of distributing and dispensing a controlled substance resulting in the death of a patient; two counts of distributing and dispensing controlled substances resulting in serious bodily injury (nonfatal overdoses); 38 counts of distributing and dispensing controlled substances; two counts of aiding and abetting health care fraud; and one count of aiding and abetting money laundering.