Hospice owner accused of telling nurses to overdose, kill
patients.
The owner of a Texas hospice company has come under fire for
allegedly encouraging employees to overdose patients and hasten their death in
order to avoid the federal reimbursement cap for hospice stays.
Brad Harris, 34, owner of Novus Health Care Services Inc.,
allegedly told a nurse to overdose three patients on drugs such as morphine,
and instructed another employee to give a patient four times the maximum dose
allowed, according to an FBI affidavit obtained by a Dallas television station.
In another instance, Harris texted an employee of the Frisco, TX-based company
“you need to make this patient go byebye.”
The FBI affidavit was written in February, but not publicly
released until this week. No charges have been filed against Harris or Novus as
of press time, and Harris remains free. The FBI declined to comment on the
investigation, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The affidavit also accuses Harris of telling other
healthcare executives that he sought out “patients who would die within 24
hours,” and of making comments like “if this f— would just die.” While at least
one employee refused to comply with Harris' instructions, it's unclear if any
patients were harmed.
The FBI's affidavit says Harris was motivated to find
patients whose hospice stays were forecasted to be short, or even speed up
patients' deaths, in order to skirt the payment caps placed on hospice care by
Medicare and Medicaid.
Another employee said Harris would frequently decide which
patients would be moved to and from home care, despite not being medically
certified; Harris is an accountant by trade. Harris would have employees sign
transfer papers with the names of doctors employed by the company, according to
the affidavit.
"If a patient was on hospice care for too long, Harris
would direct the patient be moved back to home health, irrespective of whether
the patient needed continued hospice care,” the affidavit reads
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