A psychiatrist who stepped down as the head of the Arkansas State Medical Board in March was raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration Tuesday.
The location and focus of the raid have not been disclosed because the investigation remains active, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas. However, the doctor’s other legal troubles remain public knowledge.
Medicaid payments to Brian Hyatt’s Pinnacle Premier Psychiatry practice in Rogers, Arkansas, were suspended in late February over allegations that the doctor defrauded Medicaid while working at a hospital.
Dr. Hyatt resigned as head of the Arkansas State Medical Board on March 2, having originally been appointed by then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, in January 2019.
He remains on the board as a non-executive member, with his term expiring on Dec. 31, 2024. Dr. Hyatt filed an appeal of the Medicaid payment suspension in March 2023.
Dr. Hyatt, who has not been criminally charged, was head of the behavioral health unit at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, Arkansas, from January 2018 to May 2022. The fraud claims date to this period.
In April 2022, a whistleblower in the behavioral unit contacted the Arkansas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
The informant claimed that Dr. Hyatt was only on their floor a few minutes a day, directed staff to cross off his name on the armbands worn by patients, and walked up and down the hall with a computer on wheels, never entering patient rooms, according...
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