A doctor in federal prison for chemotherapy fraud was among President Biden’s recent recipients of clemency, a stark contrast given the president’s longstanding advocacy for cancer patients and survivors.
Bidens sweeping clemency actions Last week, sentences included commutations for nearly 1,500 inmates, including Meera Sachdeva, a Mississippi oncologist who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to chemotherapy fraud. Sachdeva gave her patients only partial doses of their prescribed cancer treatment, while charging the full amount.
Sachdeva pleaded guilty in 2012 to the federal chargesincluding defrauding health insurers and Medicare by submitting false claims on behalf of the patients she treated. In addition to the prison sentence, she was also ordered to pay nearly $8.2 million in restitution.
U.S. prosecutors said that between 2007 and 2011, Sachdeva’s patients believed they were receiving an amount of chemotherapy equal to the amount billed to their respective health care programs, but that patients instead received lower doses, less than the amount prescribed and billed . of chemotherapy drugs.
A judge of a United States district court in Jackson, Mississippi, said he was “shocked” by Sachdeva’s treatment of her patients at a vulnerable time in their lives.
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Chart comparing presidential clemencies granted in the first term. (Tom McLaughlin/Fox News Digital)
“Sending this woman to prison for the next 20 years is a very small amount when compared to the damage she has caused,” U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III said in court.
“The health care fraud committed by these defendants was an abuse of the public trust motivated by greed,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis. a statement to be announced the original prison sentence for Sachdeva in response to her guilty plea.
“We remain committed to protecting the integrity of our health care system and will continue to strictly enforce our federal health care laws.”
The news comes at a time when certain names on Biden’s clemency list have come under increased scrutiny. Among those whose sentences were commuted or pardoned are Toyosi Alatishe, who abused his position as a patient caregiver for persons with severe mental and physical disabilities by using their personal information to file fraudulent tax returns, and the former judge Pennsylvania, Michael Conahan, who was convicted in 2011 for his role in a “Kids-for-Cash” schemein which children were sent to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks from the private prisons.
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Biden’s leniency in Sachdeva’s case stands out in part because of his history of advocacy on behalf of cancer patients. (Getty Images)
Biden’s leniency in Sachdeva’s case stands out in part because of his history of advocacy on behalf of cancer patients.
In 2016, then-Vice President Biden launched the Cancer Moonshot, aimed at bringing together cancer researchers and accelerating scientific discoveries in cancer research. The initiative was announced shortly after Biden’s son, Beau Biden, died of a rare form of brain cancer.
In a statement last week announcing the new clemency measures, Biden said America was “built on the promise of possibility and second chances.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden attend a meeting of the Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access in the State Dining Room of the White House, October 4, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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“As President, I have the great privilege of showing mercy to those who have shown remorse and rehabilitation, giving Americans the opportunity to participate in daily life and contributing to their communities, and taking steps to reduce sentencing disparities to take away non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offencesBiden said.
