http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=354334
Doctor who performed 'blood cleansing' indicted for fraud,
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Cedar City doctor was charged in a 54-count
indictment for billing government and private insurance plans for
unconventional blood cleansing, then labeling that therapy by a different
name because insurers won't pay for it.
Dr. Scott Werner, 46, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Salt
Lake City on charges of submitting false insurance claims for 54 patients
who received chelation therapy, a series of intravenous infusions said to
detoxify blood and ward off cardiovascular and a host of other diseases.
[...]
It typically costs $75 to $125 for each of dozens of treatments, according
to quackwatch.com, run by retired Allentown, Pa., psychiatrist Stephen
Barrett, who has been debunking dubious medical procedures for 30 years.
Although no date has been set yet, Werner was to receive a summons to appear
in federal court. If convicted, he could face 270 years in prison and $1.3
million in fines for all 54 counts, the U.S. attorney's office said.
However, any actual sentence likely would be much less severe.
[...]