Who is Dr Brian Hyatt? Arkansas psychiatrist accused of keeping patients captive to carry out $800K Medicaid scam
SPRINGDALE, ARKANSAS: A well-known psychiatrist from Arkansas has found himself embroiled in controversies and is now at the center of an investigation by state and federal authorities after being accused of holding his patients hostage for days and weeks to carry out fraud. Dr Brian Hyatt was allegedly involved in an $800,000 Medicaid scam, as per lawsuits that also claimed that he imprisoned at least 26 people in his unit at Northwest Medical Center.
Aaron Cash, a lawyer who represents many alleged victims of Hyatt told NBC News, “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.”
Who is Dr Brian Hyatt?
Hyatt once served as chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board after getting his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine. However, he reportedly stepped down in May after numerous allegations against him began to surface.
At the time, Hyatt said in a letter, “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. I will continue to defend myself in the proper forum against the false allegations being made against me.” Besides, his contract was also “abruptly terminated” by Northwest Medical Center in Springdale last year.
‘Dr Hyatt is a clear outlier’
The Daily Mail reported that in 2018, Hyatt became the medical director of Northwest Medical Center's behavioral health unit and increased the number of beds from 25 to 75. During his tenure, the claims to Medicaid and Medicare also soared, which helped him make $1,367 per day, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin stated.
Besides, the doctor also had his own private practice, Pinnacle Premier Psychiatry, where he used to see patients. It has been said that in his medical insurance claims, he claimed to do regular face-to-face examinations of patients at the hospital. However, in April last year, an ex-employee alleged that Hyatt used to spend “a few minutes each day” with patients and he “had no contact with” them, a search warrant affidavit by the attorney general mentioned.
The accusation reportedly led to the inspection of 45 days of CCTV footage from the hospital. “Dr Hyatt never had even a single conversation with the vast majority of patients under his care,” the affidavit wrote about the finding. But the accused’s unit still got over $800,000 from Medicaid between January 2019 to June 2022.
The official document asserted, “According to the claims submitted by Dr Hyatt and the non-physician providers working under his supervision, no patient being treated in the behavioral unit located at Northwest Medical Center ever got better, at least not before the day of the patient’s release,” before adding, “Dr Hyatt is a clear outlier, and his claims are so high they skew the averages on certain codes or the entire Medicaid program in Arkansas.”
Alleged victim’s ordeal
An alleged victim of Hyatt, 52-year-old Shannon Williams, has reportedly shared, “They sent in four nurses, techs and they each grabbed my arms and my legs and held me down on my stomach and shot me up with a sedative.”
Explaining further about her February 2021 suffering, the nurse from Harrison revealed, “I was terrified. It was as if I was in prison. It was like a nightmare. If I cried, then I was again threatened with more time.” Another alleged victim William VanWhy added, "I was not receiving any medical care at all."