Pasadena Clinic's $34M Medicare Skin Graft Scam Exposed in Federal Raid

PASADENA, Calif. — Federal prosecutors on Monday secured a court warrant to seize $2,039,792 from a bank account tied to Expert Wound Care PC, a Pasadena clinic operating as St. Victoria Home Health Care, accused of defrauding Medicare out of $34 million through bogus skin graft claims.[1][2] U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia G. Rosenberg approved the seizure as part of an ongoing probe by Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services investigators. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced the action Tuesday, noting the clinic submitted $46.6 million in claims for skin substitutes like AMCHOPLAST and Tri-Membrane Wrap, plus wound care services, for 78 Medicare beneficiaries from July 2025 to March 2026.[1][2] Court affidavits detail explosive billing spikes: claims jumped sixfold to $33 million in December 2025 from $4.975 million in July, averaging $299,639 per patient — far exceeding national norms.[1] One beneficiary racked up $6.2 million in claims, including $2.6 million billed for 52 skin graft applications and services from October 2025 to February 2026 that investigators say never occurred, with 27 December claims falsely listed as home services.[2] The clinic's metrics dwarfed averages: 38.5% of beneficiaries got skin grafts (vs. 6% nationally), 63% of claims were for grafts (vs. 7%), and 99.9% of payouts went to them (vs. 49%).[2] No charges have been filed against principals, who could not be reached for comment.[1] This Pasadena case mirrors a national Medicare skin substitute crisis preying on California's aging population. In 2025, CMS's Fraud Defense Operations Center blocked $185 million in suspicious wound-care payments.[1] Broader probes echo a 2024 $1 billion Arizona scam by APEX Medical, where providers billed dying hospice patients for unnecessary grafts, leading to a 15½-year sentence for ringleader Alexandra “Lexie” Gehrke in October 2025 and $600 million in ordered restitution.[3] Local seniors in the San Gabriel Valley, reliant on Medicare for chronic wound care, now face heightened scrutiny amid the federal crackdown.