So far only 2 states have released their share of the $23,900,000 Benevis/Kool Smiles Dental Fraud Settlement that covers a 3 year period of Jan. 2009 to Dec. 2011.
Arkansas - $478,500
Massachusetts – $1+M (the state is to receive $1,700,000 with a portion of that going back to the Federal Government)
They started their business model of “Abuse Children; Collect Medicaid $” in June of 2002 with Drs. Frick (Tu Tran) and Frack (Thein Pham) and Kool Smiles still at it today; it will soon be 16 years!
One must never forget Dr. Tu M. Tran and Dr. Thien Chi Pham were dentists working at Smile High Dentistry in Colorado. Smiles High Dentistry is part of the Small Smiles Dental chain in 2001.
That leaves 13 years of the same fraud and abuse that has gone unchecked.
Below is a post from Massachutches Attorney General Maura Healey’s facebook page which nearly caused me to have a seziure.
I have to comment:
"This is a story of an enormous company defrauding Medicaid and pushing unnecessary procedures onto kids. We investigated and reached a settlement. Now millions will be returned and this company will change its practices forever."
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!
First, that statement left out the fact these unnecessary procedures were accomplished whereby small children, even babies, were tied up and tortured for speedy traumatic and painful procedures.
This has been going on in state for over 15 years. MassHealth state auditors noted in a published report Kool Smiles and it's cousin Small Smiles had a high incident of crowns back in 2005 or 2006. I have that report somewhere, I’ll find it and post it for you.
In a report you state “With this settlement, we’re recovering more than $1 million for the state and will ensure this company cannot use these practices in the future.” That is the most naive thing I've ever heard in my life. They were doing it before auditor walked in, while auditors were there, the minute auditors walked out the door and while they were signing this Settlement Agreement.
Question Attorney General Maura Healey: How much did Mass get in 2010 when Small Smiles was sanctioned $24M? Did they change their business practices? Uh...no! Actually, they doubled down! Small Smiles even signed a 5 year Quality of Care Corporate Integrity Agreement.
Imagine the millions of dollars pillaged and the number of children abused by this “enormous company”.
This is state-sanctioned child abuse, you just can't paint it any other way.
Virginia’s Attorney General Facebook page posted about the settlement as well. Of course I had to comment:
As I’ve pointed out before, as far back as 2009 Kool Smiles has had representative on the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance (DMAS) Dental Advisory Board (DAC). First David Strange, the Paul Walker. Small Smiles had representitives as well.
In January 2010 a similar “Settlement” was reached with Small Smiles Dental Centers—Kool Smiles’ step-cousin 2 times removed.
Small Smiles even went to far as to signed a 5 year Quality of Care Corporate Integrity Agreement and agreed to pay nearly $24M (nearly $27M when you add in the separate amount for the state of New York.) plus interest.
By February 2012, Small Smiles filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. Three years later in February 2015 Small Smiles filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. It still owed $26,049.276.61 from the January 2010 settlement.
What happened to Small Smiles?
They simply sold a few clinics to Kool Smiles, Adventure Dental (also root with Small Smiles) and DentaQuest, also operated by former Small Smiles executives and kept a few for themselves, esepcially in Georgia and South Carolina.