A leading Arkansas psychiatrist was accused of holding two dozen patients against their will for days and weeks in an $800,000 Medicaid scam, the lawsuit says.
dr Brian Hyatt, 50, is facing lawsuits from at least 26 victims who allege they were held in his unit at Northwest Medical Center for days and sometimes weeks.
“They sent four nurses and technicians, and each of them grabbed my arms and legs, held me on my stomach and injected me with a sedative,” claimed one victim who was held for five days.
The once-famous psychiatrist is under investigation by the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office for allegedly operating an insurance fraud scheme, claiming to treat patients he rarely saw and then charging Medicaid the “highest severity level for each patient” to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Hyatt has since resigned as chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board and was “abruptly” fired from his position at the hospital – but denies wrongdoing. Northwest Medical Center also denied any malpractice.
dr Brian Hyatt, 50, is facing lawsuits from more than two dozen patients who allege they were held in his unit at Northwest Medical Center for days and sometimes weeks.
The investigator reviewed surveillance footage that allegedly showed Hyatt exiting patient rooms that were on the floor, despite having submitted numerous Medicaid applications saying he had personally met with them
The Arkansas Attorney General claims he made hundreds of thousands of dollars off his Medicaid claims
Hyatt, a University of Arkansas Medical Sciences graduate, was appointed Medical Director of Northwest Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Division in January 2018.
Under his leadership, the bed count went from 25 to 75, and Medicaid and Medicare claims skyrocketed — earning him $1,367 every day, according to Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.
Hyatt also operated its own private practice, Pinnacle Premier Psychiatry, in the town of Rogers, Arkansas, about 25 miles from the hospital.
However, investigators claim Hyatt would file claims for reimbursement with federal authorities and said it conducted daily face-to-face exams with patients at the hospital.
In April 2022, a former employee came forward and told state investigators that Hyatt was only “on site with patients a few minutes a day and that Hyatt had no patient contact,” according to an affidavit obtained by NBC News.
Investigators then reviewed 45 days of surveillance footage from the hospital and found that the doctor entered a patient’s room or interacted with a patient just 17 times — totaling less than 10 minutes.
‘DR. “Hyatt has never had a single conversation with the vast majority of the patients it serves,” the affidavit said.
Still, from January 2019 to June 2022, Medicaid paid out more than $800,000 to the Hyatt entity.
‘DR. “Hyatt is a clear outlier, and its claims are so high that they skew averages for specific codes or the entire Medicaid program in Arkansas,” the affidavit reads.
Federally funded health insurance for Americans in poverty uses a coding system to determine how much it would pay providers, with the highest coding charging the highest rates because these patients require more care.
The state attorney general’s office now states that 99.95 percent of the claims that the Hyatt entity submitted to Medicaid came under the most expensive codes.
“The claims made by Dr. According to Hyatt and the nonmedical providers working under its supervision, no patient treated in the behavioral unit at Northwest Medical Center has ever gotten better, at least not until the day the patient was discharged,” the affidavit reads.
Hyatt was named Medical Director of Northwest Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Division in January 2018. The hospital has denied any wrongdoing, despite suddenly dismissing him
Willian VanWhy (left) was allegedly held against his will in a psychiatric ward for four days last year before his husband Cameron Tryon and his lawyer obtained a court order demanding his release
In an apparent effort to perpetuate the scam, many of the former Hyatt patients said they were being held against their will for days or even weeks.
Under Arkansas law, the mentally ill can be held against their will for 72 hours if they pose a danger to themselves or others.
To keep them longer, a medical provider must file a court request and obtain approval from a judge.
But in at least two cases, NBC News reported, a patient was only released from Hyatt care after a sheriff’s deputy arrived with a court order.
Northwest Medical Center was unable to provide sufficient documentation to warrant the hospitalization of 246 patients being held in the Hyatt unit, the attorney general said
“I think they had a plan to hold people down as long as possible, settle their insurance as long as possible before they kick them out, and then fill the bed with someone else,” claimed Aaron Cash, an attorney who represents several former Hyatt patients.
Cash said he was first involved in the case in January 2022, when he sent a fax to the hospital demanding the immediate release of his client Karla Adrian-Cáceres, who had arrived at the psychiatric ward the day before and was keen to leave.
After Cash sent off the fax, Adrian-Cáceres’ mother went to the hospital to pick her up, but was reportedly told her daughter would not be released.
The next morning, Hyatt reportedly emailed Cash saying he would neither confirm nor deny that Adrian-Caceres was in his unit.
“Our facility has received your silly claims and defamatory comments about someone you allegedly represent and who is allegedly at our facility,” read the email included in Adrian-Caceres’ lawsuit against the doctor.
Hyatt reportedly added that he would only verify that Adrian-Cáceres was in the unit if Cash got his client to sign an “information release order.”
The lawyer responded about four hours later with a court order calling for their release.
Still, the hospital allegedly refused to release her, prompting Cash to seek a second court order – which the judge ordered the sheriff’s office to enforce.
Eventually, a deputy went to the facility with Adrian-Cáceres’ mother and arranged for her release.
The next morning, Cash claims, Hyatt emailed him again, making fun of the colleges he attended.
Then, when Cash found out about another former patient, William VanWhy, who was locked in the psychiatric ward for four days last year, he decided to help again.
Noting that in VanWhy’s case no request had ever been made to keep him incarcerated and worked with VanWhy’s partner to seek his release.
A few hours later, a sheriff’s deputy entered the hospital with the court order in hand and VanWhy’s husband at his side.
When they got to the elevator, surveillance footage from NBC News showed, they met a nurse who confided in her, ‘I’m glad he’s getting out.’ Don’t repeat that.’
Shannon Williams claims she was held for five days despite being asked to leave the country
“It was like being in prison,” said Williams, mother of three. “It was like a nightmare. If I cried, I was again threatened with more time.
In another instance, Shannon Williams found herself in “crisis mode” as she grappled with the recent death of her grandmother upon learning her brother had died of COVID abroad.
She ended up in an emergency room about 90 minutes from Northwest, but was transferred to the Hyatt station the next morning after a doctor decided she posed a danger to herself.
“They sent four nurses and technicians, and each of them grabbed my arms and legs, held me on my stomach and injected me with a sedative,” Williams said of her arrival at the psychiatric ward.
She claims she was held for five days despite being asked to leave prison.
“It was like being in prison,” said Williams, mother of three. “It was like a nightmare. If I cried, I was again threatened with more time.
Cash now said all the patients he spoke to insisted they received virtually no care during their stay on the ward. He noted that several of these patients were at risk and needed therapy.
“Some of them actually needed help,” Cash said. “And what they got was hurt.”
Hyatt has not been charged with any crime.
Hyatt has not been charged with a crime and insists he did nothing wrong; “I will continue to defend myself in the proper forum against the false allegations being made against me.”
Hyatt insisted he did nothing wrong, writing in his letter of resignation from the Arkansas State Medical Board in May, “I am resigning not because of any wrongdoing on my part, but so that the board can continue its important work without delay or distraction.”
“I will continue to defend myself in the proper forum against the false allegations being made against me.”
In a statement to Arkansas Business last month, his attorney said, “Dr. Hyatt continues to maintain his innocence and denies the allegations against him.
“Despite his career as a distinguished clinician, Dr. Hyatt has become the target of a vicious, orchestrated attack on his character and services.” “He looks forward to defending himself in court.”
Officials at Northwest Medical Center also deny any wrongdoing — despite terminating the contract with Hyatt in May 2022 and settling a $1.1 million settlement with the attorney general’s office in April.
“We believe that hospital staff have complied in all respects with Arkansas law, which relies heavily on the treating physician’s assessment of the patient, including in making decisions related to involuntary admission,” spokeswoman Aimee Morrell said in a statement to NBC News.
“While it is not our practice to comment on pending litigation, I can report that last spring we took a number of actions to ensure the safety of our patients, including hiring new providers who will be responsible for the clinical care of our patients with behavioral disorders in early May 2022.”