Pasadena clinic is suspected of Medicare scam, authorities say

Feds seize more than $2 million from a facility in skin graft fraud investigation.

- BY RICHARD WINTON

Federal prosecutors seized more than $2 million from a Pasadena wound-care clinic bank account “suspected of scamming millions of dollars from Medicare” through reimbursements for skin grafts that patients allegedly never received, federal officials announced Tuesday.

Working with Department of Homeland Security Investigations, First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli revealed that Expert Wound Care, which does business as St. Victoria Home Health Care, is the target of a federal inquiry. The Pasadena-based clinic is accused of fraud, according to a seizure warrant affidavit that federal prosecutors filed Monday and that a federal magistrate in Los Angeles approved.

The clinic received more than $34 million in federal payouts, with claims involving a single patient totaling more than $6 million, according to a U.S. Secret Service agent affidavit in the investigation. Expert Wound Care and its principals could be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.

No charges have been filed against the clinic’s principals, and the investigation remains ongoing.

The seizure is part of larger investigation into Medicare-funded wound care by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS. Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the agency, told The Times in an interview early this year that it was tackling a massive fraud issue in the skin graft and wound care industry, with the agency paying tens of thousands of dollars per square centimeter of treatment, and in some cases even for fake treatments.