A podiatrist whose local practice has closed pleaded guilty Thursday to healthcare fraud.
Glenn Gregg Petty, who goes by Gregg, is the only defendant named in a 31-count indictment alleging 22 counts of healthcare fraud and nine counts of aggravated identity theft in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas. Petty, 52, pleaded guilty to a single count of healthcare fraud Thursday morning and is expected to receive a five-year term of probation when he returns to court in several months for formal sentencing.
Petty appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven for a plea hearing in a fourth-floor courtroom at the downtown federal building. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross, who was standing in for Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Locker, said Petty's plea agreement includes payment of $157,660 in restitution to the government. Ross said it will be up to the court to decide if Petty should be assessed a fine and whether he should be ordered to complete any community service restitution.
Craven told Petty that his plea and resulting felony conviction mean he may no longer be eligible to vote, hold public office, serve on a jury, possess guns or ammunition or receive certain federal benefits. Petty has shuttered the office where he once practiced on Richmond Road in Texarkana, Texas, but still operates Legacy Foot and Ankle in Frisco, Texas, according to staff at the office.
According to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Petty's medical license expires Nov. 1.
Petty pleaded guilty to billing Medicare for a patient's therapeutic exercise treatments when all he did was send the patient home with a sheet of paper on which exercise instructions were printed.
The original indictment accused Petty of billing Medicare for services rendered on people who were dead. Had he been convicted of aggravated identity theft, he would have been required to serve time in federal prison.
Ross said the plea agreement negotiated by Locker includes a dismissal of the remaining 30 counts at sentencing. A sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III will be scheduled once a presentencing report has been completed and received by the court.
Petty is being sued in Bowie County District Court by four former patients who allege that Petty performed unnecessary surgeries on them that worsened the condition of their feet.