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1 mai 2008
Dallas doctor pays $253,000 to settle accusations he misfiled claims
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, May 1, 2008
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
A Dallas doctor who received five years' probation for prescribing a controlled substance without a medical purpose has agreed to pay more than $253,000 to resolve allegations that he submitted improper Medicare and Medicaid claims.
Dr. Daniel Maynard was sentenced to probation on the four felony charges in an October plea deal that followed allegations that he caused the overdose deaths of at least 11 people.
Dr. Maynard, 62, was originally charged in state court with two counts of manslaughter and numerous prescription fraud counts. But Dallas County prosecutors chose to make a plea deal because there were numerous problems with the complex case. The other charges were dismissed.
Regarding the Medicare and Medicaid claims, state and federal authorities said that Dr. Maynard violated the law by inflating "billings for thousands of physician evaluation and management services" between January 1999 and June 2003, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Richard Roper.
To justify the billings, Dr. Maynard would have had to spend more than 24 hours a day treating patients on at least 32 occasions, the release said. On six of those days, he claimed "to have seen more than 100 patients," it noted.
Dr. Maynard did not admit wrongdoing and denied all liability, the release said. Neither Dr. Maynard nor his attorney could be reached for comment.
As part of the settlement, Dr. Maynard agreed to give up participating in all federal health care programs. His medical license remains suspended, according to the state medical board's Web site.
Dr. Maynard was granted deferred adjudication probation and won't have any felony convictions on his record if he successfully completes his sentence.
The doctor was arrested as the result of a multi-agency investigation that began in late 2002 after complaints from relatives of several patients who had died taking prescription painkillers. Those who died were both young and old, and their autopsies listed various causes of death, including drug overdoses.
Court records say former and current employees of Dr. Maynard told investigators that the clinic saw patients on a first-come, first-served basis. One former employee told investigators that some patients slept outside the clinic "in order to be able to sign in on the sign-in sheet first."
According to state records from 2002, Dr. Maynard led the state in prescriptions for the sedative diazepam and logged the second-highest number of prescriptions for hydrocodone. That year, he wrote 54,748 prescriptions.
