(The Center Square) – An Arkansas doctor is facing two Medicaid fraud charges for allegedly fraudulently billing Medicaid more than $300,000.
Dr. Bryan Hyatt, the former chairman of psychiatry at Northwest Health System, was arrested last month and released on a $15,000 bond after an arraignment in Pulaski County Court, according to Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.
The incidents occurred between Jan. 1, 2022 and April 29 of the same year, the attorney general said.
Hyatt faces a prison sentence of between six and 30 years on each case if convicted and up to $15,000 in fines.
“Prosecution of Medicaid fraud in Arkansas is the responsibility of my office, and I take that responsibility seriously,” Griffin said. ‘I want to thank Senior Assistant Attorney General Sharon Strong and Senior Special Agent Greg McKay for their exemplary work on this case, and I am also grateful to Sixth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones for his cooperation and assistance with the filing of these felony charges.”
Former patients are suing Hyatt in civil court on charges of false imprisonment. One woman said in a lawsuit filed on Nov. 13 she checked into Northwest Medical Center on Nov. 12, 2020 for treatment of depression, severe anxiety and worsening post-traumatic stress disorder.
The woman said she wasn’t treated for her disorder and asked to leave but had signed a voluntary commitment order. Even after the order was changed to an involuntary order that requires a patient release after 72 hours, she was still denied the opportunity to leave. The woman was in the hospital for eight days.
“As a matter of course, Dr. Hyatt and other providers and staff were reluctant, if not outright unwilling, to appear in court and defend their attempts to involuntarily detain patients and obtain an involuntary admission order from a circuit court,” the lawsuit said. “Rather than complying with the law, the Defendants would instead threaten, coerce, and/or manipulate patients into signing voluntary consent forms in order to eliminate any requirement for legal filings or appearances in court and, most importantly, to allow the Defendants to continue holding patients well beyond 72 hours for their fraudulent billing scheme.”
Northwest Medical Center settled with the attorney general’s office in April and said Hyatt’s contract was terminated. The hospital denied violating state law but “acknowledges that many of the medical records supporting the covered claims contain templates created and used by Dr. Brian Hyatt, and that the records may lack certain details and may be difficult or impossible to audit.”
The settlement required Northwest Medical Group to pay $1.1 million to Arkansas’ Medicaid Trust Fund.
