Rochelle Barcellona Named President of Northern California Personal Chef Association

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May
2012Chef Rochelle Barcellona, aka Chef Ro, owner of Barcellona Bites, has been named the president of the Northern California Personal Chef Association.

Sacramento, CA (1888PressRelease) May 02, 2012 - Chef Rochelle Barcellona, aka Chef Ro, owner of Barcellona Bites, has been named the president of the Northern California Personal Chef Association, a chapter of the United States Personal Chef Association (USPCA).

"The USPCA is pleased and excited about the selection of Chef Ro as chapter president of the Northern California Chapter and look forward to her bringing her leadership and experience to this group of successful personal chefs," notes Vince Likar, USPCA Executive Director.

According to Barcellona, she will promote the chapter's mission to connect individuals and families in Northern California with professional personal chefs and actively promote the personal chef industry by educating the public and supporting the association's members. "I'm honored to accept this leadership position and excited about working with the other personal chefs in the chapter," says Barcellona.

Barcellona began Barcellona Bites in 2009 after graduating top-of-her-class in culinary school and becoming a certified personal chef from the USPCA. In addition to her personal chef service, Barcellona is webmaster of www.WeeklyMenuClub.com, an online menu planning service.

To contact Barcellona Bites, visit www.BarcellonaBites.com or call 916-353-5200. For more information on the personal chef association and USPCA, visit www.norcaluspca.com and www.uspca.com.

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Chapman's Ice Cream is now on Facebook and Twitter

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May
2012 Chapman's Ice Cream has joined the social media trend by joining Facebook and Twitter. New social media accounts feature the latest industry news, nutrition tips, new product releases, promotions and much more.

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Blueberries and Strawberries Reduce the Rate of Brain Aging

Researchers followed the intake of berries in a group of women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study for more than 20 years.  They observed that women who had higher berry intake, especially blueberries but also strawberries, delayed cognitive aging by up to 2.5 years.

“As the U.S. population ages, understanding the health issues facing this group becomes increasingly important,” said Dr. Elizabeth Devore with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. “Our study examined whether greater intake of berries could slow rates of cognitive decline.  We provide the first epidemiologic evidence that berries may slow progression of cognitive decline in elderly women.  Our findings have significant public health implications as increasing berry intake is a fairly simple dietary modification to test cognition protection in older adults.”

America is facing an aging population and an epidemic of cognitive decline related issues, including Alzheimer’s disease.  Increasing berry intake is relatively easy and should be done by everyone at any age.  Dietary supplements with concentrations of the active components of the berries are another effective and convenient way to boost intake.

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Scientists Tout Resveratrol as a Primary Nutrient for Cardio Health

The limitations of Western medicine drugs to address the actual issues of cardiovascular health are significant.  Sure drugs can lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and reduce stickiness of blood.  Unfortunately they typically do not improve health as they do so, fail to address many of the key issues in the circulatory system that are actual causes of the problem, and pose rather serious side effects.  A new European study states that nutrients such as resveratrol Natural phenol or type of antioxidant found in red grapes, red wine. Research has shown beneficial effects as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agents along with supporting healthy blood sugar and cardiovasculature function. should be used in medicine as anti-atherosclerotic agents and should be considered as main-line treatments for cardiovascular issues.

The researchers extensively review the resveratrol Natural phenol or type of antioxidant found in red grapes, red wine. Research has shown beneficial effects as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agents along with supporting healthy blood sugar and cardiovasculature function. science as it applies to cardiovascular health.  Documentation includes the reduction of inflammation within arteries, stimulation of repair factors for the lining of arteries, reduction of platelet stickiness, prevention of platelet aggregation (preventing stroke), prevention of unstable plaque development, prevention of immune cell migration to inflamed vascular system, increased production of friendly nitric oxide that helps to relax arteries, offset the impact of high blood sugar on circulatory health, prevent LDL cholesterol Low-density lipoprotein. It is a group of lipids and proteins that allow lipids like cholesterol, triglycerides, and fat soluble nutrients (Vitamin A, D, E , K, Q 10, carotenes) to be transported with the water-based bloodstream. from being damaged, help lower cholesterol, improve antioxidant status within the heart and arteries, and increase blood flow to the brain.

There is no drug that does any one of these actions without potentially high risk side effects, let alone multiple benefits as resveratrol Natural phenol or type of antioxidant found in red grapes, red wine. Research has shown beneficial effects as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agents along with supporting healthy blood sugar and cardiovasculature function..  Yet, resveratrol Natural phenol or type of antioxidant found in red grapes, red wine. Research has shown beneficial effects as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agents along with supporting healthy blood sugar and cardiovasculature function. is non-toxic.

Resveratrol is an excellent cardio-support nutrient and is now garnering significant world-wide attention as a main-line way to help improve cardiovascular health without side effects.

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Longer sleep times may counteract genetic factors related to weight gain

ScienceDaily (May 1, 2012) — Toss out another old wives' tale: Sleeping too much does not make you fat. Quite the opposite, according to a new study examining sleep and body mass index (BMI) in twins, which found that sleeping more than nine hours a night may actually suppress genetic influences on body weight.

See Also:Health & MedicineObesitySleep Disorder ResearchDiet and Weight LossMind & BrainSleep DisordersInsomniaObstructive Sleep ApneaLiving WellReferenceCircadian rhythm sleep disorderOverweightBody mass indexSleep deprivation

The study looked at 1,088 pairs of twins and found that sleeping less than seven hours a night was associated with both increased BMI and greater genetic influences on BMI. Previous research has shown that genetic influences include things like glucose metabolism, energy use, fatty acid storage and satiety. In this study, the heritability of BMI was twice as high for the short sleepers than for twins who slept longer than nine hours a night.

"The results suggest that shorter sleep provides a more permissive environment for the expression of obesity related genes," said principal investigator Nathaniel Watson, MD, MSc, of the University of Washington. "Or it may be that extended sleep is protective by suppressing expression of obesity genes."

Watson and colleagues determined that for twins sleeping less than seven hours, genetic influences accounted for 70 percent of the differences in BMI, with common environment accounting for just 4 percent and unique environment 26 percent. For twins averaging more than nine hours of sleep, genetic factors were attributed to 32 percent of weight variations, with common environment accounting for 51 percent and unique environment 17 percent.

More research is needed, Watson said, but these preliminary results may suggest that behavioral weight loss measures would be most effective when genetic drivers of body weight are mitigated through sleep extension.

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Treating childhood obesity: A family affair

ScienceDaily (May 1, 2012) — With nearly one-third of American children being overweight or obese, doctors agree that there is an acute need for more effective treatments. In many weight management programs, the dropout rate can be as high as 73 percent, and even in successful programs, the benefits are usually short term.

See Also:Health & MedicineStaying HealthyObesityChildren's HealthDiet and Weight LossWorkplace HealthFitnessLiving WellReferencePediatricsOverweightDiabetes mellitus type 2Body mass index

Although family-based approaches to pediatric obesity are considered the gold standard of treatment, theories of the family and how it functions have not been incorporated into effective interventions, according to a study published in the May issue of the International Journal of Obesity by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

"The field of family studies provides an innovative approach to the difficult problem of pediatric obesity, building on the long-established approach of family-based treatment," said Joseph Skelton, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and director of the Brenner FIT (Families in Training) Program at Wake Forest Baptist, and lead author of the study. Skelton and his research team reviewed medical literature published between 1990 and 2011 to identify the use of prominent family theories in pediatric obesity research. Of the 76 manuscripts found, 13 were selected for the study.

Wake Forest Baptist researchers found limited use of family theories in the study of pediatric obesity, particularly in weight management treatments. Family behavioral theories can provide valuable insight into the complexities of families, and increased use of these theories in both research and practice may help in the development of more effective treatments for childhood obesity, the study found.

"Traditionally doctors looked at the patient as the one in the family to focus on, but now we have to look at the entire family as the patient," Skelton said.

"One of the problems we found was that there wasn't even a clear definition of family in the literature. A two-parent household with a stay-at-home mother and working father is no longer the norm. Inability to define the family makes it difficult to apply a straightforward model of family function to child health and weight management."

In the clinic setting, families are often represented by a child and a parent, typically the mother. However, this often does not accurately reflect family complexity and it doesn't define which family members should be included in treatment, Skelton said. A common theme in the field of family studies is that families are a system, made up of interdependent units. Intervening with one unit, such as a mother and a child, will influence other units. These interpersonal relationships influence the health behaviors of the child and the family as a whole, according to the study.

"The challenge is to find ways to incorporate the entire family in the process, while allowing for different schedules and different age kids with different health needs," Skelton said. "If we don't find more effective treatments and this epidemic continues, these children will likely go on to become obese adults, resulting in an entire generation with lower life expectancies than their parents' generation."

Skelton and his team at Brenner FIT have begun incorporating theories of the family into their research and in their treatment approach, and are finding ways to engage more members of the family in treatment.

Funding for the study was provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Duke Endowment and the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Foundation.

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Why underweight babies become obese: Study says disrupted hypothalamus is to blame

ScienceDaily (May 2, 2012) — It seems improbable that a baby born underweight would be prone to obesity, but it is well documented that these children tend to put on weight in youth if they're allowed free access to calories. Now, researchers believe they understand why this happens.

See Also:Health & MedicineObesityDiet and Weight LossInfant's HealthFitnessDiseases and ConditionsPregnancy and ChildbirthReferenceAppetiteBirth weightInfantNutrition and pregnancy

A new animal model study at UCLA has found that in low-birth-weight babies whose growth was restricted in the womb, the level of appetite-producing neuropeptides in the brain's hypothalamus -- the central control of the appetite -- is higher, resulting in a natural tendency among these children to consume more calories.

"Other studies have shown that neuronal processes that signal the brain to eat were wired differently in the hypothalamus if a hormonal gene, such as leptin, was missing," said the study's lead author, Dr. Sherin Devaskar, professor of pediatrics and executive chair of the department of pediatrics at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA. "What we found is that appetite-producing genes in the hypothalamus are completely programmed toward eating more to make up for the relative decrease in nutrition while in the womb. So the natural tendency for a child born with low birth weight is to eat more and try to catch up in growth. But if this is not curbed, it can result in childhood obesity."

The findings appear in the June issue of the Journal of Neuroscience Research and are currently available online.

The study was undertaken in rodent models that mimicked small human babies. This was accomplished by reducing rodent mothers' intake of calories, which in turn led to the birth of small, low-birth-weight and growth-restricted babies. The rodent babies were then examined at an early age to see how much milk they consumed and to monitor their energy expenditure. In addition, the researchers examined the effect that being growth-restricted in the womb had on hypothalamic neuropeptides that control appetite when the babies were weaned.

The researchers observed that those neuropeptides that bring increased appetite with decreased energy expenditure were increased in the hypothalamus, while the neuropeptides that reduce appetite and increase energy expenditure were decreased. Therefore, the homeostatic balance of appetite-controlling neuropeptides was disrupted. The hypothalamus was poised to consume as many calories as were available, with no sense of satisfaction.

These findings expand on recent research published by Devaskar and colleagues in the June issue of the journal Diabetes, which found that if small babies are placed on a diet of moderately regulated calories during infancy, their propensity to become obese decreases. Because this was an early animal study, the UCLA researchers do not recommend that mothers of low-birth-weight infants start restricting their children's nutrition and suggest they consult with a pediatrician regarding any feeding questions.

About 10 percent of babies in the United States are born "small" -- defined as less than the 10th percentile by weight for a given gestation period. Some organizations define low birth weight as less than 2,500 grams -- or 5 pounds, 5 ounces -- at term.

Low birth weight can be caused by malnutrition due to a mother's homelessness or hunger or her desire not to gain too much weight during pregnancy. Additional causes include illness or infection, a reduction in placental blood, smoking, or use of alcohol or drugs during pregnancy.

Growth restriction before birth may cause lasting changes in genes in certain insulin-sensitive organs like the pancreas, liver and skeletal muscle. Before birth, these changes may help the malnourished fetus use all available nutrients. After birth, however, these changes may contribute to health problems such as obesity and diabetes.

Devaskar said the next phase of research will look at an intervention to reverse the hypothalamic neuropeptide changes that cause the central control of appetite to be set too high.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

In addition to Devaskar, the study was conducted by a team of UCLA researchers that included Bo-Chul Shin, Yun Dai, Manikkavasagar Thamotharan and L. Caroline Gibson.

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Hologic to buy Gen-Probe for $3.75 billion

Reuters – Mon, Apr 30, 2012 (Reuters) - Medical device maker Hologic Inc is buying diagnostic test firm Gen-Probe Inc for $3.75 billion cash, gaining access to molecular diagnostics products used to screen for blood diseases and test transplant compatibility.

The deal would combine Gen-Probe's leading diagnostics for sexually transmitted diseases and its blood screening business with Hologic's global market presence and distribution primarily targeting women's health.

Under the deal, Hologic will pay $82.75 for each Gen-Probe share, a 20 percent premium to the stock's closing price on Friday. Gen-Probe shares surged 18.7 percent to $81.57 in afternoon trading on Monday.

Shares of Hologic, which is financing the deal with a combination of cash and debt, fell 10.1 percent to $19.08. Earlier on Monday the company reported quarterly revenue that fell short of expectations, and analysts said Hologic was paying full price for Gen-Probe.

"It's certainly a good acquisition for them (Hologic), but they definitely paid a lot and the Street is probably reacting to the price they paid as well as the weak earnings number they put up," said Jeremy Feffer, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Hologic Chief Executive Rob Cascella said in an interview that he has been talking with his counterpart at Gen-Probe, Carl Hull, in recent months about a potential acquisition.

"When you look at this business as a combined entity, this is our diagnostics franchise which will now be the largest franchise within Hologic and it will be primary dedicated to women's health, which is the emphasis behind Hologic's other businesses like breast health," Cascella said.

The deal comes nearly a year after Gen-Probe put itself up for sale and Novartis AG , which already had a partnership with the company, pulled out of the bidding process.

"The $3.7 billion proposed acquisition of Gen-Probe by Hologic looks to be at a full but fair valuation; experience over the last year suggests that a competitive bid is unlikely," Cowen and Co analyst Doug Schenkel said.

Hologic focuses on women's healthcare and makes diagnostic and breast health products and conducts minimally invasive procedures for women suffering from excessive menstrual bleeding.

Schenkel said if the deal receives anti-trust clearance, the combined company will challenge Qiagen , the dominant player in the market with screening tests for the human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer.

The Federal Trade Commission earlier blocked Cytyc, now a part of Hologic, from acquiring Digene, now a part of Qiagen, due to competitive concerns about the HPV business.

Hologic is confident the Gen-Probe deal will receive regulatory clearance because the companies' HPV platforms target different segments of the market, with Gen-Probe being at the higher end, Cascella said in the interview.

"Hologic has been struggling with its Cervista HPV platform. The prospects for Gen-Probe's HPV are widely viewed as superior," Schenkel said.

The acquisition of Gen-Probe will attract the attention of investors to the remaining independent companies with molecular diagnostic platforms, including Qiagen and Cepheid , Oppenheimer & Co analyst David Ferreiro said in a note.

DEAL TERMS

Hologic said the transaction will add about 20 cents per share to its earnings in the first fiscal year after the deal closes, which is expected in the second half of the year.

The company expects annual cost savings of about $75 million within three years of the closing, and about $40 million in the first year.

Hologic, which has more than 500 employees in China focused on diagnostics, said it plans to market Gen-Probe's products, including blood tests and sexually transmitted disease tests, in both developed and emerging markets.

"Hologic's larger international presence, particularly in China, should help grow Gen-Probe's ex-U.S. businesses," Oppenheimer's Ferreiro said.

Morgan Stanley advised Gen-Probe on the transaction, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Perella Weinberg Partners advised Hologic. Goldman Sachs is also providing fully committed financing to Hologic.

On Monday, Gen-Probe reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, helped by strong sales of its women's health products.

Separately, Conceptus Inc said it settled patent infringement litigation related to Hologic's Adiana Permanent Contraception System. Under the settlement, Hologic agreed to remove its Adiana system from the market by May 18.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim in New York and Anand Basu in Bangalore, Editing by Roshni Menon, Andre Grenon and John Wallace)

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FDA extends review for Salix diarrhea drug

Reuters – Mon, Apr 30, 2012 (Reuters) - Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd said U.S. health regulators have extended the review date by three months for its experimental pill for HIV therapy-related diarrhea.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was to review the drug, crofelemer, on June 5.

The FDA has notified Salix that it requires additional time for a full review but did not seek any additional studies, the company said in a statement.

Salix holds the North American and European rights to the drug.

India's Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd holds the rights to sell the drug in 140 other countries but is in arbitration to retain them after initial developer U.S.-based Napo Pharamaceuticals Inc terminated their agreement in November.

Shares of Salix Pharmaceuticals were trading down about 3 percent at $49.28 on Monday afternoon trade on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Balaji Sridharan in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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Prostate drug limits love life

Q. I am at my wits’ end. I’ve been taking Prempro for hot flashes. Now my doctor wants me to stop because of cancer concerns. Whenever I quit, though, the hot flashes return worse than ever.

My friends swear by bioidentical hormones, but my doctor says that they have not been proven any safer than Prempro. She wants me to try Effexor XR, but I am not ready to take an antidepressant for hot flashes. Help!

A. Your doctor may be reacting

to a study reported at the American Association for Cancer Research this spring. The Nurses’ Health Study acquired data from 60,000 women over several decades. Those who took postmenopausal estrogen were at greater risk of breast cancer. Progesterone increased the risk even more.

Bioidentical hormones have not been tested so thoroughly, so your doctor is erring on the side of caution. For more information on dealing with hot flashes and vaginal dryness, plus the pros and cons of hormones, we are sending you our Guide to Menopause. In it we discuss nondrug approaches such as Pycnogenol and black cohosh. Anyone who would like a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (65 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons’ People’s Pharmacy, No. W-50, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It also can be downloaded for $2 from our website: www.peoplespharmacy.com.

Although antidepressants like fluoxetine (Sarafem), venlafaxine (Effexor) and paroxetine (Paxil) may ease hot flashes, stopping such drugs suddenly can cause unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, including dizziness, headache and hot flashes.

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Patients leaving hospital against advice fare worse

Reuters – 14 hrs ago NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hospital patients who leave against medical advice may have an increased risk of being readmitted or dying within a month, a study at one New York medical center finds.

In the U.S., about 500,000 hospital patients a year sign themselves out against medical advice.

Studies have suggested that decision can be unwise: patients hospitalized for asthma, HIV or a heart attack, for example, have been found to have an increased risk of readmission when they leave contrary to doctors' recommendations.

But the new study, reported in the American Journal of Medicine, suggests patients are also at increased risk of dying within 30 days of leaving against medical advice.

Researchers found that of 84,000 patients treated at their medical center, those who left against doctors' advice were more likely be readmitted within the next month: one-quarter of them ended up back in the hospital, versus 11 percent of patients who went home after a planned discharge.

They were also twice as likely to die: 1.3 percent died during the month after leaving the hospital, compared with 0.7 percent of patients with a planned discharge.

"That's the really sobering finding," said lead researcher Dr. William N. Southern, of Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

"These patients are not only at greater risk of readmission," he said, "they are also more likely to die in the next 30 days."

The exact reasons are not certain, Southern told Reuters Health.

Patients who signed out against medical advice tended to have a shorter hospital stay than patients with a planned discharge.

"So it may be that they aren't staying long enough to complete a course of treatment," Southern said in an interview. "But it may also be that they are not getting the follow-up care they may need."

The bottom line, according to Southern, is that people should be aware of the risks of leaving the hospital early.

That does not mean they have to follow "doctor's orders."

"Refusal of care is a patient's fundamental right," Southern said.

But, he added, patients do not always sign out because they don't want treatment. Often, it's for a personal obligation like work or caring for a family member.

The findings are based on 84,000 patients treated at Montefiore Medical Center between 2002 and 2008. That included 3,544 patients who signed out against medical advice.

Patients who checked out early were different from their counterparts in other ways too. For example, they were more likely to have a history of substance abuse or psychiatric conditions or to be on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor.

But even when the researchers accounted for those differences, as well as factors like age and race, patients who left the hospital against advice still had twice the risk of dying.

Of course, the specific risks to any one person would depend on the illness being treated, overall health and other factors. "Our findings suggest that whatever your baseline (death) risk is -- whether it's high or low -- it would be twice as high if you leave the hospital against medical advice," Southern said.

A limitation of the study, though, is that it reflects a single medical center -- one located in a high-poverty area of New York. Southern said it's not known whether the results would be the similar at all hospitals.

But he said the findings do give hospital staff something to communicate to patients. Until now, it had not been clear whether discharge against medical advice was associated with death risk specifically.

"Now we know that it is," Southern said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/JcvCbG American Journal of Medicine, online April 17, 2012.

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U.S. charges more than 100 for Medicare fraud schemes

Reuters – 4 hrs ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have charged 107 people, including doctors and nurses, for trying to defraud the federal Medicare healthcare program for the elderly and disabled of about $452 million, the biggest Medicare fraud sweep to date, the Obama administration said on Wednesday.

At least 91 people were arrested in Miami; Houston; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and four other cities on a variety of charges: from submitting false billing for home healthcare, mental health services, HIV infusions and physical therapy to money laundering and receiving kickbacks.

Justice Department and Health and Human Services Department officials were unable to say how much Medicare actually paid out, but a review of 34 complaints and indictments found that authorities were seeking to recover at least $59.5 million of allegedly ill-gotten gains.

"These fraud schemes were committed by people up and down the chain of healthcare providers - from doctors, nurses, and licensed clinical social workers, to office managers and patient recruiters," said Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division.

President Barack Obama's administration has been pushing to squeeze out fraud from federal programs like Medicare as part of a broader attempt to stem soaring healthcare costs, arguing fraud can contribute to rising prices for services.

Breuer said that it is the single largest Medicare billing fraud sweep by the Justice Department's special task force in its five-year history. In September, the Obama administration charged 91 people in connection with a variety of schemes aimed at bilking Medicare out of $295 million.

The FBI said it is investigating more than 2,600 cases of healthcare fraud with more than 500 agents and analysts. Since March 2007, the Justice Department said, it has charged more than 1,300 people for falsely billing Medicare more than $4 billion.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to use the arrests to defend Obama's controversial healthcare law passed in 2010, arguing that additional resources provided under the law helped authorities root out fraud.

"Today's actions are another example of how the Affordable Care Act is helping the Obama administration fight fraud and strengthen the Medicare program," Sebelius said.

Republicans and 26 out of the 50 U.S. states have challenged the law and are seeking to have it invalidated as unconstitutional because it would require Americans to have health insurance coverage or pay a penalty.

SEVEN ARRESTED IN BATON ROUGE

The biggest cases were in Baton Rouge where seven people were arrested and charged with eight counts, including conspiracy and healthcare fraud for billing Medicare for some $225.6 million in unnecessary services and in some cases not providing services billed.

They ran and worked at two community mental health centers in Louisiana where they billed for more group therapy sessions than were provided, including recreational and education psychotherapy, according to court records.

Medicare paid out more than $37.9 million for the services to the two centers in Baton Rouge, identified as Shifa Community Mental Health Center and Serenity Center, according to the records.

U.S. prosecutors sought to have two of the owners of the centers, Hoor Naz Jafri and Roslyn Dogan, held without bond pending trial. Dogan was also accused of stealing evidence from the prosecutors' office in a bid to obstruct the investigation, according to a detention memo.

Four others who worked as therapists at the centers pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud for purporting to provide group therapy and document patients' attendance, the court documents said.

In one case out of Miami, 10 people were charged with allegedly seeking $63 million in reimbursements from Medicare as some therapists altered their paperwork to try to justify services for patients who did not need them.

In another Florida case, one person was accused of receiving kickbacks to refer patients to a company that offered home health and physical therapy services, submitting $60 million in claims. Medicare reimbursed that group, NANY Home Health Inc, $40 million.

Last month, the three operators of NANY Home Health were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for their roles in the scheme and were ordered to pay $40 million in restitution.

(Editing by Jackie Frank and Mohammad.zargham)

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