Ontario Teachers Union Pension Fund takes over My Dentist Complete Care Dentistry

 

According to reports, including the one at The City Wire, Heartland Dental has taken control of My Dentist Complete Care Dentistry, founded by the late Dr. Rodney Pat Steffan in Oklahoma City, OK. What reports fail to mention is who actually “controls” Heartland Dental.  That would be Ontario' Teachers Union Pension Fund.  According to Business Week, the union pension fund took over in December 2012, to the tune of $650 million.

 

“Heartland Dental’s vision and values align perfectly with the principles on which Dr. Steffen founded My Dentist,” stated Kevin Offel, My Dentist president and CEO said in a statement.

That is a scary statement for any and all My Dentist patients! 

The My Dentist locations will continue to use the same branding and signage now used.

 

This is what makes it so shady and hard to determine the ownership and control of these corporate mills. 

“Through our affiliation with Heartland Dental, I am confident we will continue operating My Dentist with the integrity and same caring heart we have always demonstrated,” Dr. Jennifer Chambers said. “I am personally excited as both a Clinical Director and a practicing dentist to carry-on the values and practices instilled in us with My Dentist while enhancing our capabilities going forward with our Heartland Dental affiliation.”

There is that word, ‘affiliation” again!  Jot down Dr. Jennifer Chambers’ name, I’m sure someone will need this information in the future.

 

The transaction is subject to certain regulatory and other approvals and is expected to be completed within 60 days. Upon completion of the transaction, My Dentist will be affiliated with a company that provides dental support services to more than 500 dental offices in 26 states.

Is CSHM, LLC taking full responsibility for all future legal actions against Small Smiles Dental Centers? You decide.

Update: 10-24-2013 10:58AM

On October 9, 2013 the so-called “new company” who owns and operates all the Small Smiles Dental Centers that have managed to remain open denounced its association with the so-called former owners and management company.  (see statement below)

In making this claim, they must also be taking full responsibility for any and all illegal activities and/or malpractice issues that could arise in the future, right?  As the below email suggests, those will be coming.

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Hi - I have kept up with your site for a while now because honestly it was the only way to find out the "real" news on Small Smiles. I am former employee of Small Smiles in South Carolina. When I took the position I had NO clue what I was getting into. I resigned from my position due to the horrible reputation Small Smiles has and it was mentally exhausting to even go to work.

Small Smiles Dental Centers Release Statement RE: New York Malpractice Case #1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, there is no mistake or confusion. It's the one and the same.  Creative financing and a few (very few) corporate heads rolling does not a completely different company make. Good try.

I suspect in the future we will see New FORBA and NEW NEW FORBA side by side in court just as we have Old FORBA and New FORBA today.

A dead fish by any other name still stinks.

PS. there is issue with jury being "stalked" so verdict is not set in stone.

AIG Operative Stalks Jurors in 1st Small Smiles Dental Center Malpractice Case

Remember when the American taxpayers (you) bailed out American International Group (AIG) to the tune of $185 BILLION dollars in 2008?  Remember the company’s offices were converged upon by angry Americans.  So much so, that in typical bully fashion they actually took the name off headquarters in New York City in order to “hide” their location.  .

The latest victim of AIG’s bullying is an 11 year old boy in Syracuse, New York and the jurors who were to decide how much this child should be compensated for their policy holders misdeeds. 

There were 30 trials on schedule in New York by former patients of Small Smiles Dental Centers.  Many of these patients were 2, 3 and 4 years old when they victims of the clinics formerly located in Syracuse, Albany and Rochester.  There is much information about Small Smiles Dental Centers and their so called “management company” on the web and this blog, so I’m not going to bore anyone with more of that.

The first of the 30 trials finally made it to a jury October 7, 2013.  The complaint was filed in April of 2011 against, Edward DeRose, Michael DeRose, Dan DeRose, William Mueller, Adolph Padula, Michael Roumph, Dr. Naveed Aman, Dr. Koury Bonds, Dr. Yaqoob Khan and more, plus a host of dummy corporations set up to hide the true ownership of the clinics and make it difficult to track the hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained Medicaid money they pocketed.

After trying to bury two judges and the attorneys representing the little boy—now 11 years old—in mountains (and I do mean mountains) of ridiculous pleadings, testimony finally began September 23, 2013 in Syracuse. 

The trial lasted for 2 1/2 weeks.  You can read all the transcripts here. I urge you to take time to read them.  It’s more entertaining than anything on television this fall and better read than any book on The Times Best Seller list since 50 Shades of Grey—however I do think the transcripts and the book could carry the same title.  There was a lot of shadiness happening in that courthouse and the testimony from the accused had more twists of the truth than a pretzel factory and there were so many bodies being thrown under the bus, the courtroom could have doubled for a Greyhound bus station.

Texas stepping up its game to recover stolen funds from Medicaid fraudsters

On Dental Claims, State’s Bark Worse Than Its Bite

by Becca Aaronson

October 15, 2013

Texans discovered nearly two years ago that the state was spending more on orthodontic claims in its Medicaid program than the other 49 states combined, but recovery of millions in purportedly misspent Medicaid money has moved slowly.

After a couple judicial setbacks, the Health and Human Services Commission’s Office of Inspector General has stepped up its game by bringing in the big guns at the attorney general's office and private counsel. The OIG also hired a chief dental director, Dr. Linda Altenhoff, and is making sure that multiple dental experts review cases before they’re brought to a judge. The outcome of those efforts will be apparent when an administrative judge rules on a case testing the state's evidence for withholding payments to Antoine Dental Center in Houston, which was argued in May.

Meanwhile, the accused Medicaid providers have made it clear they aren’t returning any money — or allowing the state to sully their reputations — without a fight. They’ve formed a coalition, Texas Dentists for Medicaid Reform, and filed a lawsuit against the state challenging the OIG’s hardball tactics of withholding Medicaid payments for months on end during fraud investigations with limited evidence that fraud occurred.

[We can’t forget about Texas Dentists for Medicaid Fraud.  See links at end of this blog post.]

After WFAA-TV in Dallas reported in December 2011 that Texas spent more on braces and Medicaid orthodontic claims between 2008 and 2010 than the other 49 states combined, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a report that found the Texas Medicaid and Healthcare Partnership, the company contracted by the state to process Medicaid claims, had only one dentist on staff and essentially rubber-stamped dental and orthodontia claims without reviewing whether those services were medically necessary.

Dentist, Gary Anusavice sentenced to 8 years in prison for Medicaid Fraud

 

Prison time for a Connecticut dentist who swindled millions from the federal Medicaid program.

Gary Anusavice, 60, used recruiters, to seek poor patients who used Medicaid. Then he would perform unnecessary dental procedures and file fraudulent Medicaid claims that added up to $20 million, $3.3 million he collected for himself from 2008 through 2012.

Anusavice is now sentenced to eight years in prison and has been ordered to pay $10 million in fines, give up his luxurious Rhode Island home, a boat, his Mercedes, and about $90,000 in cash found at his home.

He operated a network of clinics where the fraud went on in the central, southern and western parts of Connecticut.

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Dentist In Massive Medicaid Fraud Case Sentenced To 8 Years

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com The Hartford Courant
9:32 p.m. EDT, October 9, 2013

HARTFORD — A dentist barred from practicing elsewhere in New England was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison for operating assembly line-style clinics in Connecticut that targeted poor patients, performed unnecessary dental procedures and collected on more than $20 million in fraudulent claims from Medicaid.

Gary Anusavice, 60, operated networks of clinics in the south, central and western parts of the state from 2008 to 2012 and personally collected more than $3.3 million from the fraud.

Under a variety of settlements with the state and federal governments, Anusavice will pay more than $10 million in fines and restitution, in addition to giving the government his 8,000-square-foot home in Rhode Island, his boat, his Mercedes-Benz and about $90,000 in cash that investigators found in the home.

Anusavice opened clinics in areas where high concentrations of low-income people relied on the federal government's Medicaid program for medical treatment. Medicaid, which is administered in Connecticut by the state Department of Social Services, reimburses physicians for costs they incur while treating patients who are unable to pay.

Link to 29 reports on FORBA’s Small Smiles Dental Centers

Fortress Insurance Company v. Ocean Dental PC, Dr. Chad Hoecker and Dr. Robin Lockwood

Case Number:
5:2013cv00322

Filed:
May 2013

Fortress Ins. v. Ocean Dental, Chad Hoecker, Robin Lockwood Amended Complaint  Filed August 23, 2013

Fortress alleges neither Dr.Lockwood, Dr.Hoecker, nor Ocean Dental complied w/ requests for patient records, as their MP insurance carrier, against terms of their contract. They allegedly never alerted Fortress of pending claims, as required under the insurance contract. IMHO- Fortress makes a good point for Declaratory Judgment. That would leave Dr.Lockwood & Ocean Dental "naked", w/out Malpractice coverage.  Yikes!

Dr Lockwood is currently serving time at Federal Medical Center Carswell, in Fort Worth, TX. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Medical_Center,_Carswell

One big issue is the policy time period for Dr.Lockwood & Dr. Hoecker. Some acts were allegedly made outside the time period of insurance coverage. If so, Dr. Lockwood & Dr. Hoecker were operating "bare" (w/out coverage). Depending on terms of employment w/ Ocean Dental, Dr. Lockwood has a potential counterclaim against Ocean Dental, if they neglected to provide MP insurance coverage to her, as defined under her employment contract.

Dr. Hoecker denies knowledge of the terms in the Dr.Lockwood policy. If Ocean Dental purchased this policy, that would be absurd. BTW- a "claims made" policy will not cover for acts filed AFTER the term period of the policy expires. Thus, a "tail" policy would need to be purchased. Obviously, there was no tail coverage purchased.

Seem just serving time for ones sins is just the beginning of a long life of misery for Dr. Lockwood, while ole Chad Hoecker is singing “Free Bird”. 

I hope all these dentists are paying close attention!

Here is a link to all the documents found on the case-

http://www.scribd.com/collections/4366323/Ocean-Dental-Stilwater-Oklaho