Monday, September 29, 2014
DD Marketing, Small Smiles Dental Centers: Double dipping?
Monday, November 11, 2013
Dan DeRose–Soda in Schools King
Here is a “Blast From The Past” article on Small Smiles Dental Centers founder, Dan DeRose and his visions of sugar plums – Soda in Public Schools. This article was written during the period his dad, Eddie DeRose, formed DeRose Management, LLC. DeRose Management, LLC was the precursor to FORBA, LLC — the “test” dental management company of sorts.
Today's Lesson: Soda Rights; Consultant Helps Schools Sell Themselves to Vendors
By CONSTANCE L. HAYS
Published: May 21, 1999
Dan DeRose, marketing consultant, was busy doing the math for his new client, the Newark Public Schools.
The question on everyone's mind: how much money could the district make if it sold a soft-drink company the exclusive right to vend its products on school grounds? The answer, according to Mr. DeRose: a lot more than it gets right now.
''Let's just say everyone drinks one product a day, and let's just count the students,'' he said. ''At 45,000 times 180 days of school, that's 8.1 million cans. At 75 cents apiece, that's $6 million walking out the front door of your school every year in quarters and dollars.
''Let's get a lot of it,'' he told his audience, a collection of school principals, athletic directors, P.T.A. officials and one student. ''Let's get some of it back to the schools.'' Even $5 million would make a difference in the district's $550 million budget.
With his square shoulders, steady smile and conscientious use of the first-person plural, Mr. DeRose and his company, DD Marketing, are storming a once-quiet backwater in the soft-drink business. Schools regard him as a font of information. Soft-drink companies, which used to make low-key deals on their terms with local school districts, hate him with a passion.
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
No one has stopped the “Child Abuse for Medicaid Fraud” scheme; not yet anyway.
1997 – Drs. Michael and Eddie DeRose along with Dan “put coke machines in schools” DeRose started opening dental centers to abuse children so they could defraud Medicaid, then build a football stadium in their own honor.
2001 – 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.
2002 – Tran and Pham were convinced to move to Atlanta and open up Kool Smiles, starting with 2 centers.
2004 – Friedman, Fleishcher and Lowe bought the centers and established NCDR, LLC to be the dental management division of FFL.
2006 – First Islamic Bank (aka Arcaptia aka Crescent Capital) gave the DeRoses $435-million for the dental centers.
2007 – In Georgia two companies who over saw Georgia's Medicaid benefits kicked Kool Smiles out of their network of dental providers for it’s Medicaid patients. Kool Smiles said it was because Wellcare wanted to cut it’s own costs! Wellcare said it was because children being abused for profit and fraud. Georgia agreed with Wellcare, and found over 6% of all Kool Smiles patients files didn’t need the care they received and over 3% of the treatment was substandard.
2012 - We are still where we were in 2007 with Kool Smiles – children abused, substandard treatment, fraud.
With Small Smiles nothing much has moved either. Pretty close to the same as in 2003 when reports of its child abuse first surfaced – 11 very long years have passed and we are zooming toward year number 12.
Kool Smiles continued to grow to over 120 dental centers today Small Smiles topped out at 72 or 73. Hundreds of dentists, who likely worked for one of these mills, broke off and opened their own smaller versions of this business mode- Abuse and Defraud for Profit. Adventure Dental and Vision is just one example. Their “owner” also worked for a Small Smiles Dental Center.
Small Smiles alone, treats 1-million children a year.
There have been numerous news reports on Kool Smiles Dental Centers since it’s beginning. There have been at least 72 73 news reports on Small Smiles Dental Centers since 2003.
Each report, from coast to coast, contained the exact same allegations:
- Children being restrained and physically assaulted.
- Unnecessary overtreatment.
- Parents filing complaints and nothing being done.
- A State or Federal Agency is Investigating.
There have been a few letters mailed out scolding the business practices, a tiny weeny fine or two – (that has not been paid yet) and a couple of Corporate Integrity Agreements that the executives wiped their asses on. (well, it’s true!) An a few “official” reports. Personally I’m not sure what a “report” actually accomplishes.
Here is reporter, Sydney Freedberg's report for Bloomberg, published just last week!
Today is July 4, 2012 and hundreds of these little houses of horrors will open their doors tomorrow.
So far Small Smiles has seen:
- $24-million dollar fine they have not paid
- A 66 page Corporate Integrity Agreement they have not followed
- A few scolding letters with no bite
- A $230,00 fine – they have not paid. (the actual fines for all the violations amounted to millions, but they got a discount)
- One measly dental center in Manassas, Virginia they swear they do not own had to be transferred to a new owner
- The Oxon Hill dental center closed for two days of training! I’m NOT kidding!!
- Checks from the Medicaid fund still arriving in their bank accounts daily.
Hell, no wonder everyone wants in on the action.
CSHM Breach of Corporate Integrity Agreement March13 2012 <p> </p>On March 7, 2012, just days after filing bankruptcy, their independent monitor did a check of the Oxon Hill Small Smiles and turned up all kinds of problems. On May 15, 2012 HHS once again sent out another letter, telling them to shut Oxon Hill down for a two day training session.
The letter stress HHS’s concern that just days prior to the March 7, 2012 monitor visits, that the Chief Compliance Officer – Lorri Steiner,- the Chief Dental Officer, Steven Adair or Gus Ghassen or both – the SVP of Operations, Kevin Reilly,- the Executive Director of Operations,Lisa Mullinix or Scott Nearing maybe- the Compliance Attorney, Sheila Sawyer, and the Regional Director, Dr. Marlene Navedo had been to Oxon Hill Small Smiles and couldn’t find a thing wrong. NOT ONE THING! How can that be???
Are they incompetent or criminals, it has to be one or the other. Are the same folks still running the show down there? Yes indeed…several of them are still there.
CSHM Agreement with Office of Inspector General May 15 2012Something big happened that was quite serious, I don’t know what, by the Oral Surgeon at the Oxon Hill Small Smiles on February 20,2012. I don’t know if I want to know either.
Next Wednesday, July 11, 2012 is the dead line for CSHM to have reviewed and report past overtreatment at the Manassas clinic. As Bloomberg Businessweek reported, with 42% of all the root canals checked, (104 unnecessary root canals out of 244) deemed unnecessary I’m guessing that report will not look good for the dentists working there, or the company.
This company has been under the watchful eye of government regulators since 2007, when the investigation first began. Can you get your head around the fact they have not changed their ways in 5 years!!!!
Arrests next week?
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
NYT fell for the bullshit - Rise in Preschool Cavities Prompts Anesthesia Use
Rise in Preschool Cavities Prompts Anesthesia Use - NYTimes.com – Pure bullshit!
This is RIDICULOUS!
Front page?
Imagine, the story comes out of Seattle! DOCS Education’s home town!
The story quotes:
"Dr. Megann Smiley, a dentist-anesthesiologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio" SURPRISE! - Home of one of Small Smiles advisory board members and former/current office of the corrupt AAPD -Paul Cassamassmino .
The NYT is playing with the lives of children, shameful!!
Another great quote:
“We have had a huge increase in kids going to the operating room,” said Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, a pediatric dentist in Augusta, Me., and a spokesman for the American Dental Association. “We’re treating more kids more aggressively earlier.”
No shit, Sherlock! That’s why Texas is going broke, from the over aggressive fraud being committed! At least you admitted it, Dr. Shenkin!
You gotta love the last line:
"Multiple studies have shown that even children who undergo general anesthesia to treat dental decay end up with cavities again. Janine Costantini, the ambulatory practice director at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said the staff treated a 3-year-old who was making his second visit to the operating room for dental work. The boy arrived with a bottle of Coca-Cola. "
Yes, the exact same hospital where Randall Ellis of Small Smiles fame resides, as well as where Small Smiles Founder, William Mueller was head of the department! Oh and let's not forget, that Coca Cola he probably got it at pre-school... After all it was Small Smiles other founder, Dan DeRose who made that happen for the kiddies.
It’s a shame the powers that be don’t pay attention to these Pew studies. They are 3 years old or more before they release them! Half the report quoted stuff from 2007! It’s 2012 people!!!
Funny the title is “The Cost of Delay” since the data in it is so friggin “delayed” !!
Me.. FURIOUS!! Not good!
Not good at all!
Saturday, February 04, 2012
Engine trouble eyed in plane crash - The Pueblo Chieftain: Local News
Posted: Saturday, February 4, 2012 12:00 am
Engine trouble eyed in plane crash By NICK BONHAM | nickb@chieftain.com The Pueblo Chieftain | 0 comments
An engine problem appeared to have caused the Thursday night slide-off of a Learjet at Pueblo Memorial Airport, a preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane "lost power in right engine during take-off and ran off side of runway," the report said.
Due to weather conditions, investigators with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board won't arrive in Pueblo until early next week, said Mark Lovin, airport director, on Friday.
No one was injured in the Thursday night crash. The private plane was occupied by the prominent DeRose family of Pueblo. The group was taking off in poor weather conditions to Las Vegas to watch the Super Bowl. Lovin, however, has said it doesn't appear the weather was a factor.
The report said the plane sustained "substantial damage" in the crash. The name of the pilot has not been released.
The DeRoses were on Learjet ID number N31WS, which was once owned by singer John Denver, according to flightaware.com
"John Denver took delivery of this Lear in 1975. He named it WindStar 1. He created WindStar Aviation. His father, Dutch, was the chief pilot," the website said.
Records show the Learjet is now owned by Extra Point LLC, in Delaware. The plane's most recent flight was from Centennial to Pueblo on Jan. 27.
The Learjet was removed from the side of the runway late Thursday night and is being stored at the airport for investigators.
The airport was closed following the incident but was reopened Friday morning.
Engine trouble eyed in plane crash - The Pueblo Chieftain: Local News
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Dan DeRose Takes the Stand in Ford Trial
NASHVILLE -- Only one or two top executives at a TennCare contracting firm knew details of then-state Sen. John Ford's secret consulting job for the firm, according to witness testimony and documents presented by prosecutors Tuesday.
The closely held secret of Ford's $190,000-a-year job for state contractor Doral Dental began leaking out in late 2004 after the Wisconsin-based firm was sold to its current New England owners.
Ford, 66, is on trial in federal court here on six counts of corruption connected to payments he received from Doral and another state contractor.
Steven Pollock, Doral's current president, testified that he and others found out around the time of the sale that Ford was involved with two partners in Managed Care Services Group, a firm set up to help Doral win a contract with TennCare, Tennessee's expanded Medicaid program.
Doral started paying Managed Care $40,000 a month -- 40 percent of it going to Ford -- weeks after Doral won a lucrative TennCare contract in 2002.
Pollock said he began asking questions in November 2004 when Ford and his two partners traveled to Milwaukee in hopes of saving their Doral consulting deal, which had come under internal review.
"I asked (an employee) to check whether Sen. Ford was a sitting state senator,'' Pollock told jurors.
Asked why he did that, Pollock replied, "Obviously, as a government contractor, there's typically prohibitions (against) working directly with state officials.''
Pollock said Doral eventually terminated Managed Care's consulting contract, but not before the news media began reporting on Ford's connection. Doral severed the contract in February 2005, just a few days after The Commercial Appeal first reported that Ford was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars through Managed Care -- income he didn't report to state regulators.
Although he was then Doral's general counsel and vice president of market development, Pollock said he didn't know what Managed Care did for the firm. A succession of Doral executives, including senior vice president Robert Lynn and former chief financial officer Lisa Sweeney, testified similarly over the past two days.
Pollock said that two top executives -- Doral founders Craig Kasten and Greg Borca -- had authority to enter consulting agreements. Neither has testified. Testimony on Monday indicated that Managed Care was formed after Ford and Kasten began discussing a potential TennCare contract.
On Tuesday, prosecutors introduced a 2005 spreadsheet listing Doral's consultants that characterized Managed Care as "a political organization, (with) public officials tied to this organization including Senator Ford. ... Greg (Borca) worked out the relationship.''
The spreadsheet went on to say that when a rival firm had threatened to sue Doral, "MCSG intervene(d) and no suit was filed. Well connected and influential.''
The passage appears to be a reference to FORBA, a Colorado-based manager of Medicaid-funded dental clinics for poor children. Two current and former FORBA officials have testified that they built and briefly opened a clinic in Memphis in 2003 but were forced to shut down after Doral would not let them into the TennCare dental network.
Dan DeRose, FORBA's former CEO, testified Tuesday that Ford had tried to discourage him from suing Doral. Echoing testimony from a lobbyist a day earlier, DeRose also said Ford tried to solicit payments from him for his legislative influence.
"He asked me if I knew what his nickname was. I said no. He said, 'They call me Mr. 15Percent,''' DeRose said. Prosecutors asked DeRose if he had asked Ford what he meant by Mr. 15Percent. DeRose responded that he had, saying, "His response was 'I can take care of your problems.'''
DeRose stood his ground when defense attorney Isaiah "Skip" Gant suggested he had made inconsistent statements regarding the Mr. 15Percent comments.
"I'll always remember it,'' DeRose said on redirect. "It was startling. ... I'd never been solicited for money like that.''
The very idea that Dan DeRose is on the witness stand trying to say his hands are clean in this just blows my mind!!!!
Sunday, June 01, 2008
DeRose, FORBA, Smile High Federal Court Filings
Monday, May 26, 2008
DeRose's Keep It "All In The Family"
Meet Brad Padula. Does the last name ring any bells with my regular readers. It should.
Brad is associated with DD Marketing (ddmktg.com), Dan DeRose's company that hooks up schools with vendor to put junk food machines in your schools. (fatten up the kids and help rot the teeth...sorry, I was thinking to myself)
Brad is Dan DeRose's cousin, via Brad's dad, Dr. Adolph Padula. Remember Adolph, he's the dentist of record with FORBA/Small Smiles in New York, Ohio and a few other states.
Brad is also the director, executive producer and writer of the documentary Beyond The Metal of Honor. Here is the cast of characters involved in the making of the film:
- Brad Padula - Director Executive Producer Writer
- Peter C. Lemon - Co-Producer and Executive Producer
- Rudy Padula - Co-Producer and Executive Producer
- Dan DeRose - Public Relations and Executive Producer
- Frank Provenza - Co-Producer Writer Narrator
- John Schymos - Director of Photography
Adolph Padula, Michael DeRose, Ed DeRose, William Mueller and Dan DeRose have their names all over documents at the Colorado Secretary of State's office in regards to various dental clinics including Small Smiles, Smile High, DeRose Children's Dental Center and 6th Street of Denver Dental Center.
I will say they sure keep it "All In The Family"
(if you checked out the website, you'll see it's the same address as DD Marketing and this same address shows up on some of those documents I mentioned above.)
Anyone know a thing about Nicole Padula, Pueblo, CO?
Wonder what this is exactly, what are they maintaining? I found it an an announcement in the Colorado Tribune January 2008.
R & R Maintenance, LLC (DLLC, 01/07/08,
Perpetual) Adolph R Padula, 409 N. Grand
Avenue, Pueblo, CO 81003
It's North Grand Street where DD Marketing is located? Hmmm.....
I found it here click
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Dan DeRose and His Connection To Small Smiles/FORBA
Cagey looking character isn't he? That's is Dan DeRose (left).
Besides having his name all over many of the Corporate documents associated with Small Smiles FORBA, a "Confidential Document" on the Internet for all to see, (here) (copy at bottom of post) clearly shows that DD Marketing is representing themselves as FORBA, LLC.. (Small Smiles, Smile High...DeRose Dental Dynasty, whatever you want to call them today...)
See Todd Cruse's email address in document as well as the physical address.
So why is his dad, Ed (Edward) and his brother, Mike (Michael) taking all the heat for the years of abuse of children in their various dental clinics?
I was sent an email by Mr. Cruse and invited to tour one of their facilities just the other day, so Mr. Cruse must still work for who....? FORBA or DD Marketing? I bet if you ask him it would depend on what day or letter head was in his printer and to what "hat" he was wearing on any given day.
Anyway, Mr. Cruse gave me a wonderful idea. After talking it over with my mate we've decided to use our summer time off to travel a bit. We are going to visit as many Small Smiles and Kool Smiles in the East and South East as we can. I'm going to take my personal Papoose Board, go to the clinics, ask parents there if their child was strapped down in one of them, do some serious interviews, filming etc. I think this is just a wonderful idea!
Thanks a bunch Todd!
CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES,
March 2, 2006
Response to:
RFI: MED-06-025
Vendor Information:
FORBA, LLC
719 546 3333
Vendor Business Background:
FORBA, headquartered in
Identification of Services
Expected Outcome: “Medicaid eligible children 12 years of age and under to receive age appropriate dental care by having an established dental home for each child.”
We believe a successful Vendor or provider should provide at a minimum all preventive services contained in the definition of the federal EPSDT standard. In addition to providing the screenings and diagnostics required by EPSDT, a successful Vendor of dental services should have the capacity and experience required to perform restorative services necessary to improve a child’s oral health.
Realizing the geographical challenges within the state of Iowa that a Vendor may encounter when trying to establish a dental home for all children under the age of 12, a Vendor should establish regional general dental clinics and then either establish a mobile dental strategy to reach out to outlying rural areas or establish partnerships with single operating dentists in such rural areas.
KEEP IN MIND, OUR DEFINITION OF A VENDOR IS A PROVIDER AND NOT A MANAGED CARE ORGANIZATION (MCO) OR THIRD PARTY ADMINISTRATOR (TPA) who have to contract with organizations such as ourselves and/or individual dentists to fill out a network.
Local Partnerships
A successful provider of dental services should establish partnerships with local health clinics, school districts, Head Start programs, Title V contractors and other third parties identified as part of the local public health system. The partnerships would require local public health establishments to help the vendor communicate available services by providing mailing lists and prospective patient information to the vendor, in the spirit of access to care, in an electronic format. The Vendor agrees to not share any prospective patient information to ensure confidentiality. The partnership should also encourage members identified as part of the local health system to apply for grants and public funds that would be able to assist with public outreach and awareness of the new services provided by the Vendor.
In addition to any public grant monies made available, the Vendor would be responsible for outreach to the underserved population through direct mailings, social caseworker coordination and on-site periodic screenings in the public school system. Direct mail pieces that would be used to inform the eligible population about the services available would also help to educate parents and children through written oral hygiene information and reminders as to the importance of regular visits to their dental home.
Once a child attends an appointment with the vendor, sufficient time must be invested for an exam, x-rays, prophylaxis, fluoride treatment, preventative education and consultation with parent or guardian regarding further treatment needed. Appointments for restorative work and six month recalls will be made and it will be the Vendor’s responsibility to confirm these appointments and get them rescheduled if the appointments are broken by the patient.
How Service Shows Fulfillment/Progress
The dental services articulated above will fulfill the expected outcome of receiving appropriate dental care by definition of providing preventive, diagnostic and restorative work on the child’s teeth.
The regional dental clinics of approximately 8000 square feet will provide the dental home contemplated by the RFI itself and settle the issue of geographical challenges mentioned above. We know
How Vendor Shows Fulfillment/Progress
In order to measure the progress of a program that includes a network of regional dental facilities and local public health system partnerships, a study of the number of children receiving patient visits prior to the “roll out” of a successful Vendor’s program would need to be conducted by the state of
The actual construction of the dental clinics will show progress toward the expected outcome. Once financing of the dental clinics is put in place and the location is decided upon, ground breaking to opening can happen in less than 120 days. The full scope including the front end work can be done in 6 months, beginning to end. There would be obvious overlap if the clinics were not built all at the same time. If one contractor was used, all four clinics could be built within 12 months.
We realize that we represent a different business model than a MCO or TPA and that any proposal from us ultimately would be different from such MCO or TPA.
Vendor Contact Information
Todd R. Cruse FORBA, LLC Chief Development Officer 719-546-3333 work 719-546-3334 fax | Kevin G. Reilly FORBA, LLC Director Special Projects 719 546 3333 work 719 546 3334 fax |