They were a welcome sight around health clubs, malls and nursing homes throughout Southern California. The mobile medical labs offered that great American come-on, something for nothing -- in this case, free medical exams. But last week the ubiquitous vans became a symbol of a disease contributing to the exploding cost of U.S. health care: insurance fraud. A Los Angeles grand jury returned a 175-count indictment against brothers Michael and David Smushkevich, along with 10 others, charging that they used the freebie checkups to submit $1 billion in fake claims. All told, they allegedly collected more than $50 million in what...
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