Hanger Orthopedic Group is the focus of both a Medicare fraud investigation by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a parallel inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission, its securities filings show.

The investigations began in 2004 after a former billing supervisor, Kendall McDaniel, went on a local television station alleging Hanger clinicians on Long Island were cheating Medicare.

McDaniel's lawyer told The Miami Herald that Hanger ''forced'' employees to bill for products that were never made and to forge doctors' names on prescriptions for prosthetic devices.

Attorney Ken Mollins said that after his client's story broke, at least 10 Hanger employees, most from South Florida, contacted him about billing issues.

He passed their information to prosecutors, who declined to comment.

The company has said it believes any billing discrepancies were confined to a single clinic on Long Island. Hanger spokeswoman Jennifer Bittner said the company has ``cooperated fully in that investigation.''

-- DAN CHRISTENSEN

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