Dr. Brian Thomas Hyatt of Rogers, the former Arkansas Medical Board chairman, was arrested Monday on two counts of felony Medicaid fraud.
Hyatt, 51, who owns Pinnacle Premier Psychiatry of Rogers, has been under scrutiny for his billing practices while serving as medical director at Northwest Medical Center-Springdale Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit between 2018 and May 2022.
Hyatt had not been formally charged as of Tuesday morning. He is being held without bond.
The accusations against Hyatt include billing for Medicaid patients he didn’t see or had spent little time with, according to Gregory McKay, a senior special agent for the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the attorney general’s office, in an Oct. 6 statement attached to the arrest warrant.
“Investigators spoke to numerous other witnesses including former patients and BHU employees,” McKay wrote. “Investigators interviewed patients who were in the BHU at different times over Dr. Hyatt’s tenure. The overwhelming response from the former patients was either that they did not know who Dr. Hyatt was or they recognized him as the man pushing the cart up and down the hallways.”
Mid-level providers said that Hyatt rarely had contact with patients before 2022, “with one provider noting that Dr. Hyatt spent little time with patients when he started at the BHU in 2018,” McKay wrote.
Between Jan. 1, 2022 and April 29, 2022, Hyatt and the staff that he trained and supervised submitted false Medicaid claims on his behalf for a level of care that BHU patients weren’t receiving, McKay wrote. In the four-month period, Hyatt billed Medicaid $205,950 and was paid $86,068, the statement said.
In a statement from his lawyers to Arkansas Business in May, Hyatt denied any wrongdoing related to Medicaid billing.
“Medicaid billing is a complicated, and not always consistently administered, system that does not make it easy for providers,” the statement said. Hyatt “has followed the guidelines as he understands them and the guidance he has received over the years as it pertains to them.”
In April, Northwest Arkansas Hospitals agreed to repay Arkansas’ Medicaid program $1.1 million for nearly 250 claims related to Medicaid patients treated at Northwest’s behavioral health unit.
“The submissions were based on medical evaluations, diagnosis and other supporting documentation created by the unit’s former independent medical director Dr. Brian Hyatt and non-physician providers working under his supervision and direction in the unit,” a spokeswoman for Northwest Health told Arkansas Business via email in May. “While we believe hospital personnel complied with Arkansas law in all respects, Arkansas law heavily relies on the treating physician’s assessment of the patient, which was provided by Dr. Hyatt. And, while there is no evidence that the hospital intended to submit improper claims, we also believe settlement is in the best interest of the organization at this time.”
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement on Monday that his office has made arrangements with Hyatt’s attorney for Hyatt to appear in Pulaski County for a bail hearing later this month.
Hyatt served on the Medical Board from 2019 until his resignation on May 16. His term as chairman began Jan. 1, 2023, and he stepped down from that position in March.
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