Forest Park Medical Center Defendants Sentenced to 74 Years in Federal Prison
A Dallas federal district judge this week sentenced fourteen health care professionals who had pleaded guilty or been convicted in a bribery-conspiracy prosecution involving Texas workers’ compensation carriers and other payors. A jury deliberated for four days in April 2019 following a seven-week trial before convicting seven of the defendants, including four doctors.
According to prosecutors, and as reported by the Division of Workers’ Compensation, surgeons, physicians, and hospital administrators steered patients, including many in the state workers’ compensation system, to Forest Park Medical Hospital. Surgeons got kickbacks, disguised as marketing or consulting fees for these referrals.
“Instead of basing decisions on patient needs, these health care providers sought to maximize their own income. Activities like this reflect a complete lack of patient care,” says DWC’s Deputy Commissioner of Compliance and Investigations, Debra Knight.
The Fort Worth Star Telegram reports the sentence terms were significant:
Hospital manager Alan Beauchamp pleaded guilty in August 2018 to conspiracy to pay healthcare bribes and commercial bribery under the Travel Act and testified for the government during his conspirators’ trial. He said that Forest Park “bought surgeries,” and “papered it up to make it look good.” Beauchamp was sentenced on Friday to 63 months in prison.
Wilton Burt, Forest Park’s managing partner, was found guilty on 10 counts, including conspiracy, two counts of paying kickbacks, six counts of commercial bribery in violation of the Travel Act and one count of money laundering. He was sentenced on Wednesday to 150 months in prison.
More than ten of the original defendants including one of the hospital’s founders, anesthesiologist Richard Toussaint, pleaded guilty. Early in the trial, the Dallas Morning News detailed how Andrea Smith, one of the hospital’s “surgery trackers” sent monthly color-coded spreadsheets to the doctors so they could prepare invoices to be paid by Forest Park.
Doctors often fought over who brought which patients to Forest Park for surgeries, Smith told jurors. Others complained of being “shorted.” Smith said she was caught in the middle and tasked with trying to sort it all out.
D Magazine published a feature article on the eve of trial that detailed the allegations.
Will Maddox of D CEO Healthcare Daily reports that the long-awaited trial of the remaining 10 defendants began today. It’s expected to last two months. The feds tracked $200 million to the scheme, about $40 million of which were kickbacks. These were disguised as marketing arrangements in some cases. In others, they came in the form of outright cash payments. All of those facing trial have pleaded not guilty. Two of the doctors, Dr. Doug Won and Michael Rimlawi, were the men who first recruited the neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Duntsch to town, who we coined Dr. Death and later became the first physician in American history to be convicted for aggravated assault related to his patient outcomes.
They’re accused of accepting payments in return for performing surgeries at Forest Park. Won’s attorney told The Dallas Morning News that he never received payments to steer patients to Forest Park facilities—he practiced there because of the high quality of its surgical suites and materials.
According to the Morning News, the Forest Park trial was one of the largest bribery and kickback prosecutions in the nation and is considered a test case for future prosecutions. “It was being closely watched by many in the healthcare industry. That’s because the government is trying to make a bribery and kickback case involving not federal healthcare dollars, but private insurance.”
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