A criminal bill of information was filed on June 30, 2011, charging Kelly Svedberg with one count of conspiracy to defraud a health care benefit program. According to the information, Svedberg was employed from September 2007 to August 2008 as a licensed physician’s assistant at a medical clinic in Charlotte.
From 2007 - December 2008, Svedburg and others, including another employee at the medical clinic, participated in a scheme to defraud Medicare, Medicaid, and others by billing those entities for medical services which were medically unnecessary, not provided, or both, including, but not limited to electromylogram (“EMG”) and anorectal manometry (“AM”) treatments.
Svedberg entered a plea of guilty on Wednesday, July 6, 2011. According to the plea agreement, the defendant agreed that the amount of loss to Medicare and Medicaid caused by this scheme was more than $120,000 and less than $200,000. Svedberg, who has been released on bond, faces a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. A sentencing date has not been set yet.
The investigation and charges are the work of the NC Western District’s joint Health Care Fraud Task Force. The Task Force focuses on the coordination of cases, information sharing, identification of trends in health care fraud throughout the region, staffing of all whistle blower complaints, and the creation of investigative teams so that individual agencies may focus their unique areas of expertise on investigations.