

Psychiatrist and Chairman of Arkansas State Medical Board Hit with Medical Fraud Criminal Charges and over 100 Lawsuits
By Robert Carter/November 3, 2024
The trial of psychiatrist Brian Wyatt has recently been postponed to next spring because of his attorneys’ full schedule. Wyatt was arrested last year for two criminal charges of “large scale medical fraud” for billing Medicaid for appointments he never had with patients.
In early 2023 a confidential informant had reported Hyatt to the Arkansas medical authorities as director of Northwest Medical’s Behavioral Health in Springdale for “significant growth in the unit and likewise in the claims and billings submitted to Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance” under his time at the helm. Hyatt was arrested eight months later for two counts of large scale Medicaid fraud.
Since then more than 100 of Hyatt’s ex-patients have filed lawsuits against him for “unlawfully coercing, abusing and holding patients against their will” within the Springdale, Arkansas, Behavioral Unit in order to receive greater reimbursement from Medicare between 2018 and 2022.
One patient was charged over $14,000 for a five day stay at the unit, for example, but he never once saw Dr. Hyatt himself. In fact, Hyatt is reported to have issued orders to his staff to mark out his name on his patients’ wristbands so they would not know his name.
William VanWhy, one of the patients filing a lawsuit against Hyatt through the Odom Law Firm, reported that “I stayed there for about five days under Dr. Hyatt’s care. I have never seen him in my life. I’ve never met him, even though I was under his care. I asked to leave every day for the last three days and they wouldn’t let me leave.”
VanWhy’s insurance was then billed for two in-person visits during his stay, per reports, with his total charges in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Matt Lindsay of the Odom Law Firm also reported that many of his clients were chemically restrained, but never got any help in the unit. “Beyond not getting help, they got much worse, and they are still every day living with the effects of what they went through at that facility,” Lindsay said.
The initial informant about Hyatt had also reported that the psychiatrist was only on the floor for a few minutes each day and that he had no contact with patients.
Hyatt has pleaded not guilty to the two Medicaid criminal fraud charges.
One can’t help but wonder how much the spectacular – if utterly fraudulent – growth of the Springdale Behavioral Health Unit under his tenure was a factor in Hyatt achieving the position of Chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board.
Certainly the psychiatrist did not arrive in that position because of his extraordinary and selfless care for his patients.