Oklahoma Labor Department investigates wage complaints filed against failed Norman medical billing companies

April 27--NORMAN -- The Oklahoma Department of Labor is investigating wage complaints filed by 19 former employees of two financially failed medical billing companies headquartered in Norman.

Axis Practice Solutions LLC and Axis Practice Management Inc. are accused of failing to pay about $15,750 in wages owed to the 19 former employees, according to information provided by Don A. Schooler, general counsel for the state labor department.

The former employees contend they are owed an additional $20,766 in compensation for overtime, vacation pay, accumulated leave time and penalties, according to information provided in response to a state Open Records Act request.

The Axis companies also are accused of withholding a combined $444 from the paychecks of six of the employees for insurance and individual retirement account contributions and not properly crediting those contributions.

Whether the alleged failure to properly credit the withheld funds was an accidental oversight or some form of embezzlement could not be discerned from the wage complaint summaries that were provided.

The Axis companies handled medical billings for Norman Regional Hospital and a few other entities. The Norman Regional Hospital Authority owns 30 percent of Axis Practice Solutions.

A hospital spokeswoman did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

"Please know that each (complaint) is part of an ongoing investigation," Schooler told The Oklahoman.

He said his agency has made legal determinations regarding amounts owed in many of the cases and has legally notified Axis Practice Management and/or Axis Practice Solutions, LLC, of its findings in a portion of the cases.

The state Labor Department investigates the validity of wage claims filed by Oklahoma workers who believe they have been wronged. The agency pursues payments on their behalf when it determines the complaints are justified.

The department does not have criminal enforcement powers in wage disputes, Schooler said.

Axis Practice Management was owned by Dr. Brian Yeaman, Dr. Tom Connally and Roy Orr, records show. Dr.Yeaman and Dr. Connally are Norman doctors, while Orr was the chief executive officer of Axis Practice Solutions, a company that was 70 percent owned by Axis Practice Management. The remaining 30 percent of Axis Practice Solutions was owned by the hospital authority.

Employees of the Axis companies were fired March 9 as the companies financially collapsed amid claims by the Norman Regional Hospital Authority that it had been overcharged by more than $1.37 million from November 2009 through December 2014.

Dr. Yeaman filed a lawsuit in which he asked for the appointment of a receiver for the Axis companies and revealed that Orr had been indicted by a New Mexico grand jury in May 2012 on allegations of embezzlement, credit card theft and fraudulent use of an illegally obtained credit card.

Orr entered into a deferred prosecution agreement in 2012 and the three-count charge against him was ultimately dismissed by New Mexico prosecutors in May 2014.

Norman Regional Hospital Authority loaned the receiver for the Axis companies $50,000 to fund the last payroll checks that were paid. The authority also agreed to pay up to $40,000 of the receiver's fees and expenses.

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