(Aug. 17) – A founding surgeon in the Forest Park Medical Center has agreed to plead guilty for his role in what prosecutors claim was a massive $40 million criminal bribery and kickback conspiracy that involved 21 doctors, hospital administrators and outside consultants.
Dr. Wade Barker is the second physician and the seventh individual to plead guilty to participating in a scheme in which the now bankrupt Forest Park, a private hospital that performed expensive specialty bariatric and spinal surgeries, paid surgeons big bucks to refer paying patients to the Dallas medical center.
The remaining 14 defendants, including six doctors, were scheduled to stand trial in October, but the federal judge in the case postponed the trial when one of the defense attorneys, Lea Courington, died unexpectedly six weeks ago.
In addition, The Texas Lawbook has learned that as many as three other defendants in the case are involved in secret plea negotiations with prosecutors.
The federal judge in the case has scheduled a hearing for Sept. 17 to learn more about plea negotiations and to set a new trial date, which will likely take place early next year.
In federal court documents filed Thursday, lawyers for Dr. Barker say that the prominent bariatric surgeon has pleaded guilty in return for a prison sentence that is at least five years but no more than six and a half years.
Mark Werbner, a partner at Sayles Werbner in Dallas, represents Dr. Barker in the case.
Dr. Barker’s plea deal is significant, according to lawyers familiar with the case, because he was part of the founding of Forest Park and is able to provide prosecutors with inside information and testimony to use against the remaining doctors and hospital officials.
In July, Forest Park co-founder and hospital manager Alan Andrew Beauchamp pleaded guilty. In his signed plea agreement, Beauchamp said he and others recruited medical specialists who could refer a significant number of patients to the hospital and then paid those doctors several million dollars in so-called “marketing funds,” which prosecutors say were actually bribes and kickbacks.
Last year, Dr. Richard F. Toussaint, an anesthesiologist and Forest Park co-founder, also pleaded guilty.
Court documents show that Andrew Hillman and Semyon Narosov – two men who operated a medical consulting business that, according to prosecutors, referred patients to Forest Park in exchange for kickbacks – asked the judge in the case for more time so that they could negotiate a potential deal with the government.
The death of Lea Courington, a partner in the Dallas office of Dykema, also impacted the case and several of the lawyers involved who were close with her.
A former federal prosecutor and a long-time law partner of white-collar legal legend Ed Tomko, Courington was widely regarded as one of the first and best healthcare lawyers in North Texas. Lawyers and judges respected her as a leader in the legal profession and a role model for younger lawyers on how they can be successful and good-hearted at the same time.