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Last updated on Thursday, November 8, 2012
(BLOOMINGTON) - Two days after the state took away his license to practice medicine, Bloomington anesthesiologist Kamal Tiwari became an inmate at a federal prison In Arkansas.
60-year-old Tiwari began serving his three year sentence October 27th in the medium security Forrest City Correctional Institution in eastern Arkansas, located about 45 miles west of Memphis, Tenn.
Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke says federal officials try to place inmates in an appropriate prison within 500 miles of where they live.
Burke says Tiwari had asked to be housed at the federal prison in Terre Haute, but was sent to Arkansas instead.
Tiwari's expected release date, after serving 85 percent of his sentence, is Nov. 13, 2015. After serving his sentence he will be placed on probation for three years and must reimburse insurance companies $1.3 million.
According to court records, Tiwari pleaded guilty to federal charges of health care fraud resulting in serious bodily injury and to illegal drug distribution for performing unnecessary medical procedures and for prescribing narcotics to addicts.
Thirteen related charges were dismissed in exchange for his guilty pleas.
During a September sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker scolded Tiwari for violating the law and for putting patients at risk. She adding that Tiwari got rich by defrauding the health care system and overmedicating patients.
The state medical licensing board revoked Tiwari's license to practice medicine on October 25th after the board found Tiwari had prescribed narcotics to addicts and failed to use reasonable care while treating patients. He was also fined $22,000.
He told the board he never intended to harm anyone and that alleviating his patients' pain was his foremost concern. He said he pleaded guilty to end the legal ordeal and to spare his wife and five children.
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