An Arkansas doctor has been arrested along with seven other people for their alleged roles in a long-running fraud and kidnapping scheme that targeted patients who’d been receiving treatment inside a hospital’s behavioral health unit.
The Department of Justice contends psychiatrist Brian Hyatt was the mastermind behind the scheme at the Northwest Medical Center Behavioral Health Unit in Springdale, which he headed between 2018 and 2022.
Also arrested in the federal probe were advanced practice registered nurses Devon Talbert and Lindsey Hess Goucher, registered nurse and former director of the Northwest Medical Center Behavioral Health Unit Miranda Newburn, former admissions and assessment referral coordinator at the behavioral health unit Robert Green and former behavioral health unit techs Georgette “Gigi” Rice, Owen Benjamin, and Collyn Harlan.
They are charged with kidnapping, Medicare fraud and drug-related offenses.
A federal indictment alleges the eight defendants held patients at the hospital against their will, sometimes via chemical restraints — or the administration of powerful sedatives.
They also used verbal threats, intimidation, coercion, and physical force to keep the patients essentially kidnapped in the medical facility.
Federal prosecutors allege the motive for the scheme was financial, with patients being kept longer than medically necessary in order to rack up Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance bills.
Staffers, the indictment claims, would often give patients who’d been looking to leave “another shot,” causing them to stay.
Hyatt is named in more than 200 active civil lawsuits, all accusing him of holding patients hostage to boost profits.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement his office has led the state-level investigation into Hyatt’s scheme.
“My office has led the investigation and prosecution of Dr. Hyatt at the state level, and I am pleased to see federal authorities bring their own charges,” Griffin said. “We are working closely with our federal partners in their case to ensure Hyatt and his co-conspirators are held accountable for their crimes.”
Attorneys for Hyatt’s alleged victims told 5 News Online the federal charges are encouraging. Matt Lindsay, a partner at Odom Law Firm representing one of the alleged victims, said the indictment validates many of these lawsuits.
“We just think this is the first step towards justice for the thousands of victims in this fraud scheme, frankly, and kidnapping scheme at Northwest Medical Center,” Lindsay said. “Folks that seek out help for mental health issues deserve to be treated with sincerity and kindness, and to have their issues heard.”
Lawyers also hope the charges bring additional victims of Hyatt’s forward, they told the station.
Ark. Doctor, 7 Others ‘Kidnapped’ Patients in Fraud Scheme
