Staff report
A Kannapolis health-care practice and its president, a physician assistant, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to health care fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced.
Cannon Family Medicine and Christopher J. Caggiano pleaded guilty in guilty to four counts of health-care fraud, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Each count carries a maximum possible penalty of 10 years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised release, the press release said.
Cannon Family Medicine and Caggiano will be sentenced Feb. 11, 2009.
Investigators believe Cannon Family Medicine submitted false claims to private insurance companies, federal employee health programs, Medicare and Medicaid, according to the release.
In July 2006, the N.C. Medical Board suspended Caggiano’s license to work as a physician assistant for two years. But the suspension was to be stayed on Jan. 1, 2007, and Caggiano was to remain on probation for the duration of the suspension.
Caggiano was accused of ordering unnecessary tests for some patients and billing patients’ insurance companies for tests not performed.
The complaint investigated by the medical board also alleged that the physician assistant violated professional standards by allowing patients to refer to him as “Dr. Caggiano.”
“The medical records produced by Mr. Caggiano consistently failed to document or demonstrate detailed medical histories and physical examinations sufficient or adequate for the extensive laboratory and diagnostic testing ordered for each patient,” the finding released in July 2006 by the medical board read.
“As a result of the extensive laboratory and diagnostic testing, (the patients’) health insurance providers incurred significant costs,” the finding continued.
The board filed a separate complaint in 2006 against Dr. John Barr, a Cleveland doctor responsible for supervising Caggiano’s work. That year, Barr accepted a reprimand from the medical board.