LITTLE ROCK — A Rogers doctor facing fraud charges billed Medicaid for high levels of care but seldom treated patients, according to an affidavit used to secure an arrest warrant.
Dr. Brian Thomas Hyatt, 49, faces two counts of felony Medicaid fraud in Pulaski County Circuit Court. He was arrested Monday in Rogers.
Security footage and statements from eyewitnesses and former employees of Northwest Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Unit provide clear evidence Hyatt was not treating patients at the level required to justify his billing to Medicaid, according to the affidavit filed by Gregory McKay, a senior special agent for the Medicaid Fraud Unit of the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office.
“From January 1, 2022 until April 29, 2022, Dr. Brian Hyatt and the staff that he trained and supervised submitted false Medicaid claims on Dr. Hyatt’s behalf,” the affidavit states.
McKay concludes that based on Medicaid guidelines, the therapy services should not have been billed by Hyatt.
“The overwhelming response from the former patients was that they did not know who Dr. Hyatt was or they recognized him as the man pushing the cart up and down the hallways,” according to the affidavit.
Patient complaints ranged from lack of care, feeling unheard when they voiced complaints, being held against their will, not receiving prescribed medication, receiving injections of a drug that made them incoherent and feeling they were kept in the hospital until Medicaid stopped paying, the affidavit states.
Former employees told investigators they received little or no training from Hyatt, according to the affidavit. They also said they were directed to bill for the highest levels of service, which paid Hyatt the most money.
“The overall consensus from former patients and former employees at the BHU is that Dr. Hyatt did not provide any psychotherapy,” according to the affidavit.
The average time spent by a care provider with a patient was about 10 minutes, based on video — not enough time to provide the services billed, according to the affidavit.
A confidential informant told investigators Hyatt was only present in the unit for short periods of time on the days he was scheduled to work, he had little to no contact with patients and spent the time he was in the unit walking up and down the halls pushing a computer on wheels.
The informant “also expressed concern with physical abuse of patients, the overuse of physical restraints and the use of chemical restraints when patients were not an imminent danger to themselves or others,” according to the affidavit.
Each of the false claims is a separate violation of Arkansas law, but all of the false claims leading to overpayment of Hyatt have been aggregated into the charges filed, according to the affidavit.
In March, Attorney General Tim Griffin announced Northwest Arkansas Hospitals had agreed to pay the state more than $1 million in connection with 246 Medicaid claims based on medical evaluations, diagnoses and supporting documentation certified by Hyatt and nonphysician providers working under his control and supervision.
That settlement came after an audit by a state contractor, the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, found documentation provided for the claims “did not justify or support the medical necessity requirement for hospitalizations,” Griffin said in a news release announcing the settlement.
All payments for Medicaid services to Hyatt were suspended by the Office of Medicaid Inspector General, according to a Feb. 24 letter the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The office determined there was a “credible allegation of fraud” against Hyatt.
Hyatt had been the unit’s medical director since January 2018. His contract with the medical center was “abruptly terminated” in May 2022, the affidavit states.
He resigned his seat on the Arkansas State Medical Board in May, but denied being involved in any wrongdoing in his letter of resignation.
Hyatt has been the center of investigations by both state and federal authorities this year.
Brian HyattMedicare and Medicaid Fraud
Medicare and Medicaid fraud refer to illegal practices aimed at getting unfairly high payouts from government-funded health care programs. Fraud involves deceit with the intention to illegally or unethically gain at the expense of another, in this case in order to illegally gain at the expense of government-sponsored health care programs.
Source: investopedia.com