El Cajon

The U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego is seeking to collect nearly $405,000 from an El Cajon osteopath who received federal grants for his medical education but declined in return to practice in the area designated by the Public Health Service.

U.S. Atty. Peter Nunez announced Friday that his office had filed a complaint against Dr. Gary Dean Hatcher, 37, who practices in San Diego. Nunez said in a press release that the lawsuit seeks $404,796.48 plus some $3,000 a month in interest starting Dec. 31, 1986.

According to the press release and Hatcher, he received $73,657 in scholarship grants from the National Health Service Corps to finance his medical education at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific in Pomona. In return, Hatcher was expected to serve two years of medical practice in an area designated as having a doctor shortage.

But Hatcher declined to go to the designated area, which he said was somewhere in Texas. Hatcher said Friday night that he had been led to believe he might serve near his hometown in the San Joaquin Valley, then discovered that would be impossible.

Hatcher on Friday blamed the Public Health Service for allegedly changing the rules of the program after he had enrolled.

But Nunez charged that Hatcher simply declined to perform his service and claimed to be “rescinding” his contract. Nunez said that under the law, people who don’t perform their designated service are charged three times the amount of their grant, plus interest. The interest rate when Hatcher defaulted in early 1985 was 17.8%.