A foot doctor who used to operate a clinic in Texarkana pleaded guilty to one count of healthcare fraud Thursday as part of plea bargain which spares him any time behind bars.
Glenn Gregg Petty, 52, formerly operated Dr. Petty’s Foot Clinic on Richmond Road in Texarkana, Texas. That business has closed but Petty continues to operate Legacy Foot and Ankle in Frisco, Texas.
Petty was indicted last year for 22 counts of healthcare fraud and nine counts of aggravated identity theft. At a hearing Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven, Petty entered a guilty plea to count 14 of the indictment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross, who was standing in for Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Locker, said Petty must pay $157,660 in restitution to the government. Ross said the government has agreed to dismiss the indictment’s remaining counts when he is sentenced in several months.
Ross said the plea agreement includes a five-year probation for Petty, who has been free on an unsecured bond since being indicted. If Petty had been convicted of aggravated identity theft he would have had to serve time in federal prison.
Petty pleaded guilty to billing Medicare for “therapeutic excercises” with a patient he claimed to have supervised in his office when he in fact gave the patient a sheet of instructions concerning exercises they should do at home. Among the allegations in the counts which are expected to be dismissed are that Petty billed Medicare for procedures on people who were deceased and that he billed Medicare for procedures he allowed his teen aged son to perform.
A civil lawsuit filed by four former patients of Dr. Petty remains pending in Bowie County. The patients allege Petty caused damage to their feet when he performed unnecessary surgeries.
