Field Walsh reports:
Local podiatrist Gregg Petty pleaded not guilty to fraud and identity theft at a hearing Wednesday in a Texarkana federal court.
Petty, 52, appeared for arraignment with Texarkana attorney Thomas Johnson in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas. Johnson entered pleas of not guilty on Petty’s behalf to 22 counts of health care fraud and nine counts of aggravated identity theft.
[…]
Petty owns Community Foot Clinic, formerly Dr. Petty’s Foot Clinic, on Summerhill Road in Texarkana, Texas, as well as Legacy Foot and Ankle in Frisco, Texas, according to the clinics’ websites. A 31-count indictment issued Wednesday in the Texarkana division of the Eastern District of Texas accuses Petty of stealing more than $150,000 from U.S. taxpayers from September 2010 to January 2013 through fraudulent Medicare billing.
The indictment’s first 13 counts accuse Petty of billing Medicare for office visits and treatments using Health Insurance Claim Numbers of people who were dead at the time he allegedly saw them in Dr. Petty’s Foot Clinic. Some of the patients had been deceased for more than a year and some just a week or two when Petty allegedly submitted claims for services rendered following their dates of death.
It appears that this is not the first time Dr. Petty has been accused of misconduct. In looking into this, I found reference to a 2007 settlement with the State Medical Board of Ohio that approved his permanent withdrawal of his application to practice podiatric medicine and surgery in the state of Ohio.
Prior to that, in March, 2004, Dr. Petty had been arrested with five other podiatrist and their associates, and charged with felonies relating to fraudulent conduct at New Boston General Hospital Inc. in New Boston. Dr. Petty appears to have been in Ohio at that time. The government subsequently moved to dismiss the indictment, and it was dismissed.
The current charges, of course, are merely allegations and Dr. Petty is innocent until proven guilty.