Florida business accused of Medicare scam

DORAL, Fla., Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Manassas Medical Center of Doral, Fla., has allegedly been collecting Medicare funds in exchange for non-existent services, alleged participants say.

Alexander McCray alleges he routinely would visit the medical center in the Miami suburb in order to collect funds in exchange for allowing the facility to claim medical procedures that never took place to the insurance program under his name, The Miami Herald said Monday.

Particularly troubling to officials is that such alleged illicit dealings occasionally include Medicare claims for HIV infusion therapy, a procedure that has essentially been replaced everywhere in the nation but South Florida, the report said.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are paid out for such outdated procedures, and Kirk Ogrosk of the Department of Justice says patients are typically the worst offenders in such scams.

''Far and away, the largest number of individuals committing Medicare fraud are the patients,'' the deputy chief of the fraud section said.

The Herald said Ogrosk has called for increased legal action in order to stop such illicit dealings from continuing.

"The department must prosecute patients in order to stop the demand for kickbacks," he said at a May conference.