Second doctor pleads guilty in workers’ comp scheme

FAYETTEVILLE — A Louisiana doctor is the second to plead guilty in federal court to taking kickbacks from a Rogers company as part of workers’ compensation fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Robert Clay Smith, 60, waived indictment by a grand jury and pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, wire fraud and illegal remunerations, taking kickbacks. The scheme ran from 2013 until 2017.

Court documents say individuals associated with a Rogers-based medical supply and billing company recruited Smith to dispense pain creams and patches to his workers’ compensation patients, offering him a split of the profit.

The Rogers company acted as the billing agent for Smith, handling all the paperwork and submitting fraudulent claims to both the U.S. Department of

Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, which covers all federal employees, and to private insurers. Smith admitted the company paid him 50 percent to 55 percent of the profit collected from successfully billing insurers. The medications were marked up 15 to 20 times their cost.

Smith, of Alexandria, La., made more than $650,000 from the scheme, according to court documents.

Smith also admitted he knew he didn’t have a license to dispense medications from his clinic, as required under Louisiana law. Smith bought topical medications from the Rogers company and dispensed them to his workers’ compensation patients from his clinic.

Smith is the second physician to plead guilty in the federal investigation. In July, Robert Dale Bernauer Sr., another Louisiana doctor, pleaded guilty to conspiring with the same individuals in a similar scheme.