Each week I'm going to be taking a look into state filings of Kool Smiles, I'm starting with Kentucky.
Organization Number- 0669850
Name- Kool Smiles, PSC
Type-Kentucky Corporation
Status-Active
Standing-Good
File Date- 7/30/2007
Last Annual Report- 5/14/2008
Principal Office- 400 Galleria Parkway, Suite 800, Atlanta, GA, 30339
Registered Agent-CT Corporation System, 4169 Westport Road, Louisville, Kentucky, 40207
Corporate Officers:
President: Tu Tran
Director: Tu Tran
Incorporator: Tu Tran
Incorporator- Kenneth E. Knott
Families Concerned About Small Smiles
Posted: March 17, 2009 03:40 PM
Updated: March 17, 2009 09:30 PM
Jason and Naomi Pinkston called FactFinder Investigators shortly after taking their four-year-old daughter, Aerial, to the dentist. They say they knew right away something wasn't right.
"I feel they took advantage of my daughter to make a profit," says Naomi.
Jason says the family did research shortly after their experience at the clinic.
"All you have to do is Google these guys to get page after page of horror stories. It felt like a nightmare we couldn't wake up from," says Jason.
That nightmare, as Jason describes it, is the work Small Smiles performed on Aerial. The family showed us before and after pictures of Aerial's teeth. Her baby teeth were showing signs of decay so Small Smiles ground them down and put crowns on them. But the Pinkstons say their problems began before any work was performed.
"She didn't explain anything to me about why it would be important to Aerial to have crowns-whether we didn't do it what would happen or what a crown was. Absolutely nothing," says Naomi.
We don't know if the work was necessary; it's too late to get a second opinion because her teeth are gone. We can tell you four of Aerials front teeth that were crowned by Small Smiles will have to be pulled by another dentist.
We wanted to talk to Small Smiles about Aerial's dental work, but instead were referred to a company in Washington, D.C. Spokesperson Don Meyer tells us the clinic thinks Aerial's treatment plan was appropriate, but the execution was less than ideal. He says because of what happened, dentists in the Wichita clinic will seek continuing education.
"What we're finding is that some of our dentists may require some extra training on what's called a ‘New Smile Crown'," says Meyer.
Although Small Smiles markets exclusively to children, we were told none of the dentists at the clinic have pediatric qualifications. They are trained only in general dentistry.
We talked to pediatric dentists in the Wichita area. All of them told us many of their patients come from Small Smiles. Patients like Shelbi Meisch's daughter Amaya.
"She's terrified to see the dentist, still. Every time we go she's scared to go in," says Shelbi.
Like the Pinkstons, Shelbi doesn't feel her options were explained and Small Smiles ended up pulling six of Amaya's teeth.
"No they didn't tell me they were going to be pulling all those teeth. I was under the impression they were going to crown two back teeth and pull the front teeth," says Amaya.
Another dentist had to perform corrective work Amaya's case.
Then there is Stacy Luthy and daughter Emma. Stacy contacted us after learning we were working on the story.
"They informed me that they had a harness they put the kids in that restrains them. They made it sound routine and no big deal."
Stacy wasn't allowed to be in the room with her daughter when they went to Small Smiles about two years ago.
"About 20 or 30 minutes later they came out and said she had been throwing up. They brought her to me. She had been screaming. She was horrified. She was in tears," says Stacy.
Like Aerial and Amaya, Emma has also had corrective work performed. The teeth Small Smiles crowned fell out, leaving her with nothing until her permanent teeth come in.
The parents say all three girls now have to be sedated to even visit the dentist.
"She'll never not be afraid of a dentist, which is alone is horrible because it's such an important thing to do," says Naomi Pinkston.
That's why the Pinkstons came to us. To encourage other parents to ask the questions they didn't ask.
More Company Response:
Forba, the company that manages Small Smiles, tells us many changes were made in late 2007. They include some of the following:
- Parents are now allowed back with their children during visits. Small Smiles made the change after receiving complaints from parents.
- It conducted about 12,000 surveys seeking parental feedback.
- Working to better communicate with parents.
- Dentists have been retrained on the use of protective restraint
- Created a toll-free number for parents to call with concerns or complaints (1-877-302-KIDS)
- Kansas law requires dentists' offices to be locally owned. This is the company's response to corporate ownership concerns.
It is not uncommon for doctors and dentists to hire or outsource various professional and specialized services, including advertising, computer technical support, legal advice, and even human resource specialists to assist them in managing their practices. For example, the Kansas Medical Society created a practice management firm to provide a broad range of office management services to physician practices around the state. Such services are provided under a management services agreement, include a variety of services and are done for a negotiated fee, much like our agreement with Dr. Reza.
By Michael Schwanke (WICHITA, Kan)
investigators@kwch.com
316-831-6166
Update:
STATEMENT FROM SMALL SMILES DENTAL CLINIC OF WICHITA
Every year we see thousands of children who receive compassionate, high-quality dental care at our dental center. Through our parent surveys, comment line and direct interaction with caregivers, Wichita families regularly express high levels of satisfaction with our care.
However, based on the story aired by Channel 12, an internal review of standards, quality and compliance has been initiated at the Small Smiles Dental Clinic of Wichita.
We take seriously any parent who expresses concern with their child's care, and we are always looking for ways to improve. We strongly urge any parent who has concerns to contact our parent hotline at 1-877-302-KIDS.
Kansas Dental Board is asking that anyone with a complaint regarding Small Smiles contact their office.
You can file an offical complaint at http://www.kansas.gov/kdb/ or call 785-296-6400.
March 09, 2009 10:06 PM
In the largest oral surgery malpractice verdict in New Jersey history so far, a jury awarded $10.2 million this week to the family of 21-year-old Francis Keller of Woodbridge, who died from suffocation after having his wisdom teeth removed by oral surgeon Dr. George Flugrad, of Perth Amboy.
Because Keller had a genetic immune disorder which caused severe swelling in reaction to trauma, he should not have been a candidate for dental or any other surgery. The morning after his tooth extractions, he began to have trouble breathing, and suffered from throat swelling that ultimately led to suffocation and death.
The Middlesex County jury found that Dr. Flugrad committed malpractice when he extracted the wisdom teeth in full knowledge of Keller’s genetic condition.
Colorado Springs Gazette's reveals 20/20's probe into Small Smiles.
Small Smiles dentistry focus of ‘20/20′ probe
March 5th, 2009, 2:02 pm by Brian NewsomeSmall Smiles Dental Centers, a national chain with offices in Colorado Springs, Denver and Pueblo, will be featured Friday in a “20/20″ report about questionable practices. Small Smiles, which serves mostly children on Medicaid, has come under fire in various media stories for restraining kids, not allowing parents to be present with them, and doing unnecessary procedures to get Medicaid reimbursements Here is a YouTube clip from an ABC News investigation in the D.C. area.
A spokeswoman for “20/20″ confirmed the report will air Friday at 8 p.m. MST. Correspondent Deborah Roberts reported from Pueblo, according to 20/20 media relations publicist Alyssa Z. Apple, but Colorado Springs is not specifically mentioned.
I found the following over at "American Thinker".
By Brian Riley:
When President Obama recently nominated Kansas governor and universal healthcare advocate Kathleen Sebelius to be to the country's Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), the president of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) called it "a very smart choice. She has a good intellect, a big heart and tremendous expertise." AHIP and its predecessor, the Health Insurance Association of America, have a track record of financial support for Gov. Sebelius dating back to the time she served as Kansas Insurance Commissioner.
Of course, the health insurance industry also supported President Obama's first choice, Sen. Tom Daschle. Daschle's financial backers included AHIP, which paid Daschle $40,000 for two speeches, and health-insurance giant United Health Care, which paid him $5,000 for "advice."
Many people criticized Daschle for taking money from the insurance industry. Few people asked the more obvious question: What were insurance companies doing paying thousands of dollars to someone who devoted his life to policies that could put them all out of business?
Daschle's book Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis praises universal, single-payer healthcare as a worthy goal. However, he concludes that it would be politically problematic to implement such a system in the United States due to the opposition of special interest groups like the insurance industry.
Here is how AHIP, the health insurance industry's top trade association, responded to the nomination of someone who views the very existence of insurance companies as an obstacle to reform:
"Senator Daschle is exceptionally well qualified to bring people together in support of universal coverage, cost-containment, and improved quality."
The industry's philosophy -- not to oppose policies that would harm insurance companies and their customers; not to simply acquiesce to ridiculous demands; but to enthusiastically embrace changes designed to reduce the ability of average Americans to buy health insurance -- was on display during the recent expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP, commonly pronounced S-CHIP), the federal program designed to provide healthcare to children.
In the past, SCHIP benefits typically were limited to families earning up to 200 percent of poverty level. The legislation recently passed by Congress raises the cap to 300 percent of poverty level and allows states to raise the cap even higher, subject to lower federal subsidies for those additional benefits.
To qualify for SCHIP benefits, the government requires families to first drop their individual health insurance entirely.
If families do not have an individual policy but get their coverage through their employer, they may be allowed to keep their group coverage in some cases. States may offer this option if the employer pays least 40 percent of the cost, as long as the policies do not allow families to set up a health savings account to pay for their medical expenses.
As a result of provisions like these, many kids who enroll in SCHIP in the future will not come from the ranks of the uninsured, but from families that drop their private coverage in order to receive "free" government care. According to the Congressional Budget Office, even before these changes it already was the case that for every 100 children who qualified for SCHIP, 25 to 50 dropped their private insurance.
Imagine for a moment that you are the chief lobbyist for U.S. health insurance industry, and Congress is considering a law that would give government healthcare benefits to people who can afford to pay for their own insurance. Further imagine that Congress would require people who already have health insurance to drop that coverage in order to qualify for government aid. What would your response be?
Here is the actual response if the insurance industry, provided by AHIP:
"This vital legislation provides health security for millions of children in working families and builds momentum for comprehensive health care reform. Expanding coverage for kids is a big first step toward ensuring that all Americans have affordable, quality health care."
Some foreshadowing of the insurance industry's apparent death wish came during the U.S. Presidential campaign. Sen. John McCain proposed giving families $5000 each to buy their own health insurance, while Sen. Obama proposed giving everyone the option of a "new public plan" instead of private health insurance. My review of campaign donation data indicates that employees of the nation's biggest health insurers -- Aetna, Blue Cross, Cigna, Humana, United HealthCare, and Wellpoint -- voted with their dollars, giving over twice as much to Obama as to McCain.
In Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged, industrialist Hank Reardon is stabbed in the back by his "man in Washington," Wesley Mouch. In the novel, Reardon is a relatively innocent victim of the man hired to protect his interests from Washington predators.
In the real world, the insurance industry is no innocent victim. For example, to head its Washington operations, the industry chose someone whose experience came from working for the AFL-CIO and, I am not making this up, the Committee for National Health Insurance, an organization formed by labor unions to lobby for "a truly radical overhaul of the health care system" with the federal government as the nation's only health insurance carrier.
I wonder how that job interview went:
Question: "Tell us a little about your experience."
Answer: "I've been working to put you all out of business."
Reply: "Great! When can you start?"
I personally know someone who recently was sent out of her local welfare office in tears, because an overwhelmed government bureaucrat mistakenly told her there was no state coverage available for her child's leukemia.
I know of a child who was hospitalized because her parents were not given government assistance to buy insurance, but instead were forced to use the local Medicaid-funded clinic where their daughter was misdiagnosed.
I have read stories in my local newspaper about children who are strapped to "papoose boards" like tiny Hannibal Lecters in order to get their teeth examined. Why? Because instead of providing financial assistance to low-income families to make dental insurance more affordable, the government instead forces them to go to Medicaid-financed dentists.
These horror stories are what we all have to look forward to as elected officials, aided and abetted by insurance industry lobbyists, gradually replace private health insurance with government-run healthcare.
Bryan Riley was the Republican candidate for Kansas Insurance commissioner in 1998, losing to incumbent Kathleen Sebelius.
I just wish that money was allocated to increase reimbursement rates to our private dentists. This would surely shut down these dental mills. Hit them in the pocketbook, right?
I encourage each of you to contact your state Legislators and Heath and Human Services Department and voice your opinion about increasing the reimbursement rates.
