text: The owner of a Frisco medical company regularly directed nurses to overdose hospice patients with drugs such as morphine to speed up their deaths and maximize profits, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by NBC 5. (Published Tuesday, March 29, 2016) 
   
   The owner of a North Texas medical company regularly directed nurses to give hospice patients overdoses of drugs such as morphine to speed up their deaths and maximize profits, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by NBC 5. 
   
   Executive Brad Harris, 34, founded Novus Health Care Services, Inc., in July 2012, according to state records. The Novus office is located on Dallas Parkway in Frisco. 
   
   Harris, an accountant, instructed a nurse to administer overdoses to three patients and directed another employee to increase a patient's medication to four-times the maximum allowed, the FBI said. He allegedly sent text messages like, "You need to make this patient go bye-bye." 
   
   In the first case, the employee refused to follow Harris' alleged instructions, according to the FBI affidavit. The document does not say whether the other three patients were actually harmed. 
   
   Frisco Hospice Sued Employees Who Left After FBI Raid 
   
   The owner of a Frisco hospice agency accused of telling nurses to overdose patients on morphine to speed their deaths filed lawsuits against several employees and two executives who quit in the days after an FBI raid. (Published Wednesday, March 30, 2016) 
   
   Harris also told other health-care executives over a lunch meeting that he wanted to "find patients who would die within 24 hours," and made comments like, "if this f----- would just die," an FBI agent wrote in the warrant. 
   
   No charges have been filed against Novus or Harris, who did not return messages left with a receptionist and at his Frisco home. 
   
   An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on the investigation. 
   
   Novus' website says the company offers hospice and home health-care services. 
   
   "We have a saying at Novus, be fast and treat people the way we would want to be treated," the website says. "This encourages us to go the extra mile to make patients feel comfortable and secure about their special needs and requests." 
   
   "AGGREGATOR CAP" 
   
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   Health-care providers do not necessarily make more money for longer hospice stays. 
   
   That's because hospices are subject to an "aggregator cap," which limits Medicare and Medicaid payments based on the yearly average hospice stay, the FBI said. 
   
   If patients live too long, the provider can be forced to pay back part of their payments to the government. 
   
   "Hence, hospice providers have an incentive to enroll patients whose hospice stays will be short relative to the cap," an agent wrote in the affidavit. 
   
   THE INVESTIGATION 
   
   The FBI said its investigation into Novus started in October 2014 and initially focused on allegations that, over the previous two years, the company recruited patients "who did not qualify for services" and charged the government for services that were not medically necessary. 
   
   The investigation revealed that "as part of this scheme, Harris, who has no medical training or licenses, would direct his employed nurses to overdose hospice patients with palliative medications such as morphine to hasten death, and thereby minimize Novus' (paybacks) under the cap." 
   
   The search – for emails and other electronic documents – was executed in early February, but the paperwork was obtained Tuesday by NBC 5. 
   
   The warrant refers to an FBI raid of Novus' offices in September 2015 but court records related to that search could not be found and appear to be under seal. 
   
   The FBI said investigators had interviewed several Novus employees. 
   
   One worker said Harris himself decided which home health care patients would be moved to hospice. 
   
   "He did this by having employees who were not doctors sign the certifications with the names of doctors also employed by Novus," the agent said. "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." 
   
   In a lunch meeting, the FBI said Harris asked two health care executives to "find patients who would die within 24 hours" because that would "save my ass toward the cap." 
   
   Speaking of one of his patients, Harris said "words to the effect of, 'If this fu**** would just die.'" 
   
   Another Novus employee told agents that in late 2013, Harris sent a text message asking the worker to "administer an overdose of medication to a hospice patient … by increasing the patient's medication dosage to approximately four times the maximum allowed." 
   
   The employee did not comply with the request because it would have killed the patient, the FBI said. 
   
   One worker said Harris regularly directed nurses to "overdose hospice patients when they have been on hospice service for too long" by sending text messages like, "You need to make this patient go bye-bye," the FBI said. 
   
   SEARCH WARRANT 
   
   The search warrant required that a data storage company that Novus had hired, Smarsh, of Portland, Ore., turn over all of Novus' emails and medical records. 
   
   The company turned over the information the same day, according to court records. 
   
   In the warrant, signed Feb. 3, the FBI said it was investigating health care fraud, false statements relating to health care matters, and obstruction of a criminal investigation into health care offenses. 
   
   The FBI said it searched Novus' offices on Sept. 17, 2015, and seized 18 DVDs of the company's emails. Another 44 were subpoenaed from the attorney of a former unnamed executive. 
   
   Agents needed a password to read the emails, according to the records. Smarsh turned over the password along with a hard drive and account and search histories, records showed. 
   
   Smarsh, which is not accused of any wrongdoing, did not respond to a request for comment. 
   
   An FBI agent investigating the case said he was working with investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services' Inspector General's office. 
   
   HHS administers the Medicare program, which provides health benefits for people 65 and older. 
   
   Medicaid, which is funded mostly by federal tax dollars and administered by the state of Texas, provides health care for poor people. ||||| The owner of a Frisco hospice agency accused of telling nurses to overdose patients on morphine to speed their deaths filed lawsuits against several employees and two executives who quit in the days after an FBI raid. (Published Wednesday, March 30, 2016) 
   
   The owner of a Frisco hospice agency accused of telling nurses to overdose patients on morphine to speed their deaths filed lawsuits against several employees and two executives who quit in the days after an FBI raid. 
   
   On Sept. 17, 2015, agents searched Novus Health Services, claiming in a warrant that the company’s founder, Brad Harris, was suspected of committing health care fraud and had made comments to employees like, “You need to make this patient go bye-bye.” 
   
   In late October, the company filed a lawsuit against nursing director Patricia Armstrong, accusing her of violating a no-compete contract when she left on Oct. 6, 2015, and went to work for another company. 
   
   The suit asked for between $200,000 and $1 million. 
   
   FBI: Hospice Owner Directed Overdoses of Patients 
   
   The owner of a Frisco medical company regularly directed nurses to overdose hospice patients with drugs such as morphine to speed up their deaths and maximize profits, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by NBC 5. (Published Tuesday, March 29, 2016) 
   
   The following month, Novus also sued four former marketing executives, also accusing them of violating their contracts. 
   
   In court papers, an attorney for the executives, Jacob Kring, blasted the company for not disclosing the FBI investigation in its lawsuit. 
   
   "Novus and its CEO Brad Harris had their offices raided by the FBI ... for euthanizing patients for profits and committing Medicaid/Medicare fraud,” Kring wrote. “(Novus) never disclosed this fact to the court." 
   
   He also said the raid had effectively put Novus out of business. 
   
   “To compound the injury, (Novus) in a Grinch-like act of spite, refused to pay each Defendant their final check,” he wrote. 
   
   Both cases were later dropped. 
   
   A separate lawsuit named two of Harris' own business partners who left soon after the FBI search. 
   
   The suit, filed by Novus' parent company, HNA Holdings, named Preston Huffington and Samuel Anderson and two law firms. 
   
   The suit claimed: "In short, Huffington and Anderson grabbed $200,000 of HNA's money for their personal benefit on their way out the door." 
   
   The executives said the money went to the lawyers because Harris had promised to pay their legal fees. 
   
   Court records show this case was closed in January. 
   
   Harris has not responded to repeated requests for comment. 
   
   Nobody has been charged in the case. 
   
   An FBI spokeswoman has declined comment. 
   
   Staff Writer Valerie Wigglesworth of The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report. ||||| DALLAS (AP) — The owner of a Dallas-area hospice ordered nurses to increase drug dosages for patients to speed their deaths and maximize profits, according to an FBI affidavit. 
   
   A copy of the affidavit for a search warrant obtained by KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth (http://bit.ly/1VTzfeh ) alleges Brad Harris ordered higher dosages for at least four patients at Novus Health Services in Frisco. It's unclear whether any deaths resulted from overdoses of drugs like morphine. 
   
   Harris has not been charged. The FBI on Wednesday declined to say whether an investigation is ongoing. 
   
   The warrant refers to an FBI raid on the hospice in September. It alleges Harris sent text messages to workers such as, "You need to make this patient go bye-bye." On another occasion, Harris told administrators during a lunch meeting that he wanted to "find patients who would die within 24 hours." 
   
   In at least one instance, an employee refused to follow orders to increase a dosage, the warrant said. 
   
   The document explains that federal reimbursements can diminish the longer a patient receives care. A provider eventually can be forced to return federal payments. 
   
   A woman who answered the phone Wednesday at Novus declined to comment. Attempts to reach Harris for comment on Wednesday were unsuccessful. A working number for him could not be found; listings for a Brad Harris in the Dallas and Houston areas had either been disconnected or turned out not to be his. The Associated Press also sent a request for comment to two email addresses believed to be his. 
   
   Harris, 34, is an accountant who founded Novus in 2012, according to KXAS, citing state records. 
   
   Novus' website says the company offers hospice and home health care services. 
   
   The FBI investigation of Novus, which included interviewing several employees, began in 2014 and initially focused on allegations that the company sought federal reimbursements for patients recruited by Novus who didn't qualify for services, according to KXAS.
target: – It's tough to comprehend: The FBI says the owner of a Dallas-area hospice ordered nurses to increase drug dosages for patients to speed their deaths and maximize profits, reports the AP. The revelations come via KXAS-TV, which obtained an affidavit filed to justify a search warrant of Novus Health Services in Frisco. The affidavit alleges that owner Brad Harris, 34, texted nurses orders such as, "You need to make this patient go bye-bye." More specifically, it accuses Harris of ordering too-high dosages for at least four patients with drugs such as morphine, though it's unclear whether any patients died as a result. No charges have been filed as the investigation continues. The FBI also accuses of Harris, during a meeting with two other execs, of expressing the wish to "find patients who would die within 24 hours." In regard to one patient in particular, he said "words to the effect of, 'If this fu**** would just die,'" according to the affidavit. The FBI says Harris was worried that if patients lingered too long in hospice care, it would cut into his company's profits. Several employees left the company after the FBI raid, and now Harris is suing them for breach of contract, reports a separate KXAS story.