Doctor prison-bound in brokering case

The Fort Lauderdale physician's sentence was reduced because he assisted investigators. He apologized to his patients and his family on Friday.

By JEFF TESTERMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2001

TAMPA -- A South Florida physician who helped organize an illegal, nationwide patient brokering network was sentenced to 15 months in prison Friday and ordered to pay $1.5-million in fines and restitution.

Dr. Richard Tyson, 56, a Fort Lauderdale physician who works with addicts and Alzheimer's patients, broke down and wept in a Tampa courtroom as he faced sentencing before U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara.

"I want to apologize to my patients, the people sent directly to my programs," Tyson said. "I also want to apologize to my wife and my dear children."

Wiping tears from his eyes, Tyson alluded to a letter he wrote to the judge in which he admitted that at some point in his life, "greed took over."

He is the first of more than 50 defendants charged in the patient brokering investigation to be sentenced to prison.

In November, Tyson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government through a multistate network of brokers who were paid $3,000 apiece for patients to fill beds in psychiatric centers and treatment programs, including several in the Tampa Bay area.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Montilla said Friday that Tyson and his associates took an estimated $32-million in kickbacks for patient referrals, with about a third of it from Medicare referrals.

Tyson was a partner with William Demaria, regarded by prosecutors as the kingpin of the patient brokering network, in Recovery Management Corp. The company operated both the Nova treatment program at the Manors, a Tarpon Springs psychiatric hospital that is now closed, and Recovery Bridge, a treatment program also out of business but originally part of Sun Coast Hospital in Largo.

Fat brokering fees, phony contracts to disguise brokering arrangements and illegal inducements to lure patients into treatment helped fuel profits at both programs, prosecutors say.

Tyson's attorney, John Lauro, asked Friday that his client be spared a prison term so he could work in the Spectrum program for addicts in South Florida.

"Dr. Tyson really is one of the premier physicians in the area of addiction medicine," Lauro said. "He has a genuine concern for patients in this area."

"The problem," Judge Lazzara replied, "is that Dr. Tyson is at the heart of this scheme."

He initially faced 41 to 51 months behind bars, but Lazzara reduced his sentence based on a recommendation by the government after Tyson provided substantial assistance to investigators.

The judge also ordered Tyson to pay a $250,000 fine and to make restitution of $1.25-million to the federal Health Care Financing Administration with periodic payments over the next five years.

The grand jury investigation into patient brokering was sparked by a 1993 St. Petersburg Times series, "The Patient Pipeline," which chronicled stories of patients duped into unnecessary or inappropriate treatment by unscrupulous brokers.

DeMaria has also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced March 19.

Tyson was profiled in the series as a graduate of Columbia University and the University of Miami Medical School who began free-basing cocaine and abusing Quaaludes in the 1980's.

Tyson was put on five years' probation by the Florida Department of Professional Regulation in 1984. After his recovery, he opened a drug and alcohol treatment clinic in Dade County called Interphase.

It was a success, a former clinical director said, because Tyson insisted "there is no inappropriate admission: As long as a patient had insurance, they were appropriate."

Brokers helped fill the beds at Interphase, according to court documents, and Tyson soon joined up with with Demaria, a New Jersey businessman with organized crime ties.

Montilla said the government may never know the extent of the brokering conspiracy because Demaria and several associates destroyed subpoenaed records.

"The co-conspirators were involved in shredding and destroying numerous records," Montilla said. "That left gaping holes in our ability to calculate how much was paid in kickbacks."

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