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Showing posts with label Medicaid Fraud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medicaid Fraud. Show all posts

Monday, July 31, 2023

Top Arkansas psychiatrist accused of falsely imprisoning patients and Medicaid fraud

Laura Strickler & Stephanie Gosk
NBCnews.com
Originally posted July 23, 2023

Here is an excerpt:

The man who led the unit at the time, Dr. Brian Hyatt, was one of the most prominent psychiatrists in Arkansas and the chairman of the board that disciplines physicians. But he’s now under investigation by state and federal authorities who are probing allegations ranging from Medicaid fraud to false imprisonment.

VanWhy’s release marked the second time in two months that a patient was released from Hyatt’s unit only after a sheriff’s deputy showed up with a court order, according to court records.

“I think that they were running a scheme to hold people as long as possible, to bill their insurance as long as possible before kicking them out the door, and then filling the bed with someone else,” said Aaron Cash, a lawyer who represents VanWhy.

VanWhy and at least 25 other former patients have sued Hyatt, alleging that they were held against their will in his unit for days and sometimes weeks. And Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office has accused Hyatt of running an insurance scam, claiming to treat patients he rarely saw and then billing Medicaid at “the highest severity code on every patient,” according to a search warrant affidavit.

As the lawsuits piled up, Hyatt remained chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board. But he resigned from the board in late May after Drug Enforcement Administration agents executed a search warrant at his private practice. 

“I am not resigning because of any wrongdoing on my part but so that the Board may continue its important work without delay or distraction,” he wrote in a letter. “I will continue to defend myself in the proper forum against the false allegations being made against me.”

Northwest Medical Center in Springdale “abruptly terminated” Hyatt’s contract in May 2022, according to the attorney general’s search warrant affidavit. 

In April, the hospital agreed to pay $1.1 million in a settlement with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office. Northwest Medical Center could not provide sufficient documentation that justified the hospitalization of 246 patients who were held in Hyatt’s unit, according to the attorney general’s office. 

As part of the settlement, the hospital denied any wrongdoing.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Whistleblower suit: Hospitals defrauded Medicaid

By Kate Brumback
Associated Press 
Originally published August 1, 2013

Two large hospital operators paid kickbacks to clinics that directed expectant mothers living in the country illegally to their hospitals and filed fraudulent Medicaid claims on those patients, a federal whistleblower lawsuit unsealed Wednesday said.

Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates and Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. and their affiliates entered into contracts with clinics operated by Hispanic Medical Management and Clinica de la Mama and their affiliates, the lawsuit says. The clinics then referred pregnant women living in the country without authorization to for-profit hospitals operated by HMA and Tenet in exchange for kickbacks from fraudulent Medicaid claims, the lawsuit says.

The entire story is here.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

HHS IG pledges focus on Medicare billing abuse involving electronic records

Inclusion in IG work plan for 2013 follows Center's 'Cracking the Codes' series

By Fred Schulte
The Center for Public Integrity
Originally published October 24, 2012


Federal officials will focus on possible Medicare overbilling by doctors and hospitals that use electronic medical records, a top government fraud investigator said  Wednesday, in announcing investigative priorities for the coming year.

“Electronic medical records can improve quality of care and efficiency and help us uncover cases of fraud and abuse. At the same time, we must guard against the use of electronic records to cover up crime,” said Daniel Levinson, the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general, in a video presentation.

The video posted on the agency’s website on Wednesday summarized the inspector general’s “work plan,” for 2013, a listing of Medicare and Medicaid fraud fighting efforts the agency plans to emphasize.

The entire article is here.


Saturday, August 11, 2012

N.C. psychologist admits to $63 million Medicare, Medicaid fraud

By Jaime L. Brockway
IFAwebnews.com
Originally published on July 24, 2012

An Asheville, N.C., psychologist pleaded guilty earlier this month in Miami district court to submitting more than $63 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid in Miami, Fla., and Hendersonville, N.C.

Serena Joslin, 31, admitted to participating in a fraud scheme operated through Health Care Solutions Network (HCSN), which operated partial hospitalization programs (PHPs), or intensive mental health treatments for severe mental illness, in Miami and Hendersonville.


Monday, June 4, 2012

Missouri Psychologist Indicted for Health Care Fraud

by Staff Reporters
Kansas City InfoZine
Originally published May 27, 2012

Rhett E. McCarty, 67, of Lake Ozark, Mo., was charged in a two-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. The indictment was unsealed and made public today upon McCarty’s arrest and initial court appearance in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo.

McCarty is a licensed psychologist and private practitioner who provided psychotherapy services to recipients of both Medicare and Medicaid in their homes in the Lebanon area. The federal indictment alleges that since Aug. 22, 2008, McCarty has submitted Medicare and Medicaid claims for at least 19 beneficiaries for which he was paid $1,276,334.

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According to the indictment, McCarty forged (or caused another person to forge) the signatures of beneficiaries on patient sign-in sheets in order to obtain $418,507 in Medicare and Medicaid payments.

The whole story is here.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

WellCare Health Plans whistle-blower to receive about $21 million

By Jeff Harrington
Tampa Bay Times
Originally published on April 4, 2012

Whistle-blower Sean Hellein will receive nearly $21 million for triggering a successful federal inquiry into Medicare and Medicaid fraud at his former Tampa employer, WellCare Health Plans.

Hellein in late February withdrew his objections to a pending $137.5 million civil settlement with WellCare. But the size of his payout was unclear until Tuesday, when U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill announced the settlement of all four lawsuits initiated by whistle-blowers.