By KELLI KENNEDY

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) _ A Florida oncologist has been charged with giving cancer patients medications from other countries that were not approved by the federal government.

Federal health officials said patients at East Lake Oncology in Palm Harbor were unaware that for the past six years Dr. Diana Anda Norbergs, and her staff were giving them cheaper, misbranded drugs, including chemotherapy drugs, that weren’t approved for use in the United States.

According to the indictment, she billed the taxpayer-funded Medicare program and private insurance companies for the illegal prescriptions, claiming that she was actually using the Food and Drug Administration-approved versions.

Norbergs was arrested Thursday and is charged with 12 counts of health care fraud and nine counts of receiving misbranded drugs in interstate commerce. She is expected to appear in court later Thursday.