Rose Cancer Criminal Sentencing

U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III presided over the sentancing hearing of Dr. Meera Sachdeva, Brittany McCoskey, and Monica Weeks on Friday, December 7, 2012. The hearing was to assign sentences to the three Healthcare workers for their involvement in the criminal side of the Rose Cancer Center case.

There have been allegations that the workers at the Rose Cancer Center diluted chemotherapy medication and reused dirty one-use needles on patients causing transmission of blood bourne diseases. This criminal hearing sentenced Sachdeva, McCoskey for providing false information to healthcare officials and changing numbers in their books.

Judge Jordan sentenced Dr. Sachdeva to twenty years in prison and nine year supervised release with a $250,000.00 fine and restitution in the amount of $8,168,524.72 to the companies who were defrauded in this matter.

This is the heaviest sentence allowable under the one count of health care fraud and two counts of making false statements charges Dr. Sachdeva pled guilty to on July 13, 2012.

Judge Jordan explained his sentence from the bench stating, “”It’s a very small thing to send this woman to jail for the next 20 years when you compare it to the damage she has done.”

Rose Cancer Center’s office manager, Brittany McCoskey, 26, of Monticello, was sentenced to thirteen months of incarceration and upon release three years supervised release along with $55,068.83 in restitution.

McCoskey pled guilty to making false statements, but said at the sentencing hearing that she knew a bone marrow biopsy was done at the Clinic by a phlebotomist who normally only takes blood. McCoskey said she knew that a Doctor should have performed the procedure but on certain occassions Dr. Sachdeva was not even at the Clinic when these procedures were performed.

Monica Weeks, 40, of Madison, MS, was in charge of the clinic’s billing from her Ridgeland firm, Medical Billing Group. She was sentenced to three months home confinement and 3 years probation. She was ordered to pay $19,549.00 restitution and a $2000.00 fine.