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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- A Cedar City doctor is being indicted for billing the government and private insurance companies for services they don't normally pay for.
Doctor Scott Werner was indicted on 54 counts of submitting false insurance claims.
The 46-year old is accused of labeling "chelation therapy" as "I-V therapy" and submitting insurance claims for those services.
Medicaid, Medicare and most private insurance companies cover chelation therapy only in the treatment of heavy metal toxicity, including lead poisoning.
That treatment is a series of intravenous infusions that detoxify the blood.
The therapy is said to ward off cardiovascular disease, though the American Heart Association says there's no evidence of that.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
