A federal grand jury in St. George returned an indictment today charging a Utah podiatrist and two nurses who worked for him with fraud for their roles in a $29 million Medicare false claims case.
According to a news release from the Department of Justice, Ryan Scott Ellsworth, 47, of Highland; Emily Kelly, 45, of Washington City; and Drake Dell Broadbent, 55, of Santa Clara, allegedly "defrauded the federal health care benefit program, Medicare, to fraudulently obtain money for their own financial benefit."
Court documents allege that, from July 2021 through December 2025, they submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for skin substitute services, many of which were medically unnecessary, and resulted in Medicare paying $29 million in claims.
Ellsworth was a podiatrist who owned and operated Summit Foot and Ankle, with clinics throughout the state of Utah, the news release said. Ellsworth also owned and operated Amble Medical, located in Highland. Kelly, a Utah licensed registered nurse practitioner and Broadbent, a Utah licensed registered nurse, worked primarily out of Summit’s St. George clinic.
As alleged, Ellsworth, Kelly, and Broadbent knew Medicare billing of a skin substitute was permissible only if medically necessary and if basic wound care had been administered to a wound for the previous 30 days.
However, according to the news release, the defendants submitted false claims to Medicare for providing skin substitutes to patients who did not have qualifying...
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