On May 24, the state Department of Public Health reached an agreement with Dr. W. Blake Taggart that he will voluntarily agree not to renew or reinstate his license. His action will be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank and the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Though the allegations against him were not mentioned in the agreement, Taggart was in the news last year when he paid the fine to resolve allegations of fraudulent claims for payments to Cornerstones P.C., a Branford outpatient behavioral health clinic for children, according to press release from Attorney General George Jepsen.
Jepsen said that Taggart, who had been the medical director of Cornerstones, and social worker David M. Meyers, the former president of Cornerstones, had filed false claims for reimbursement from the Connecticut Medical Assistance Program, which is the state’s Medicaid program.
Jepsen said Taggart had resigned as medical director in September 2009, but two months later, Meyers falsely stated in a letter to the state Department of Social Services that Taggart was still the medical director. State officials said that Taggart was implicated in the fraud by signing the false, back-dated letter.
To be eligible for Medicaid payments, the clinic had to have a medical director. From Jan. 1, 2010 through Feb. 28, 2011, DSS paid Cornerstones about $64,000 for claims for providing services to children when the clinic did not have a medical director, Jepsen said.
Meyers agreed to pay $90,000 and Taggart agreed to pay $30,000 to resolve the state’s civil allegations, Jepsen said. Cornerstones has dissolved and is no longer in operation, he said.
Taggart could not be reached for comment.
In an unrelated action with DPH, a Watertown physician assistant voluntarily surrendered her license to practice on May 23.
On March 16, DPH had temporarily suspended the license of Mary E. McGuigan-Parker in connection with her “alleged substance abuse,’’ an interim consent order stated. DPH records show that McGuigan-Parker has now surrendered her license to practice.
