Dr. Kristie Ayn Liebau-Grassi receives 4 month in federal prison, 8 months of house arrest and 3 years of supervised release

February 14, 2013

How many more mommy’s are going to go to the slammer before they stop participating in the fraud at dental clinics across the country.

GoEarie.com is reporting Dr. Kristi Ayn Liebau-Grassi is going to be spending 4 months in federal prison, 8 months of house arrest then 3 years of supervised release. She admitted guilt to defrauding Medicaid out of $289,000 between 2008 and 2011. 

After the Medicaid fraud in Pennsylvania, suspiciously, Kristi moved her family to Texas to practice dentistry. Did she hear that’s where to make the big bucks in Medicaid dental fraud? She ended up working for Pacific Dental’s Sienna Modern Dentistry in Missouri City, Texas.

I bet she would like to go back and rethink all those decisions she made back then, don’t you?  It’s not just the fine, the restitution, the prison time, etc., it’s the pain and stress of her entire family which will continue well past the time her supervision ends, something in 2017.

Counting the 3 years of waiting for the Feds to come knocking, it will be a total of 7 years by the time this is tragedy can even begin to heal. Her children’s lives where thrown away, for $289,000!  

What a shame Kristi didn’t think about her children, all under 7 years old including a 2 year old who has a serious heart problem, BEFORE, she decided Medicaid fraud was the path to wealth.

It’s ironic she tried to use the needs of her own children to stay out of prison, when screwing over other people’s children sent her there. 

 

 

Dentist gets 4 months in prison, plus house arrest, for fraud in Erie

By ED PALATTELLA, Erie Times-News
ed.palattella@timesnews.com

A 40-year-old dentist who defrauded Medicaid while treating children in the Erie area asked a judge to consider her own children at her sentencing.

The judge took Kristi Ayn Liebau-Grassi's concerns into account on Wednesday as he ordered her incarcerated for four months, followed by eight months of house arrest.

Liebau-Grassi, a married mother of five children who now lives near Houston, faced a recommended sentence of a year to 18 months in prison under the federal sentencing guidelines.

Dr. Kristie Liebau-Grassi Sentencing

Tomorrow is supposed to be the big day for Dr. Kristie Liebau-Grassi, who pled guilty to Medicaid fraud in September 2012.

She has agreed to pay restitution of $289K and faces 12-18 months of time in federal prison.  Maybe Dr. Robin Lockwood has a bunk in her cell for Dr. Kristie.

We shall see tomorrow.

Dr. Kristi Ayn Liebau-Grassi doesn’t want to go to jail.

Remember the Erie, Pennsylvania dentist who headed to Texas for a more lucrative position with Pacific Dental d/b/a Modern Dental?  Well, she’s not wanting to go to jail. Didn’t work very well for Robin Lockwood in Oklahoma, however Lockwood’s dental license still appears squeaky clean! Amazing!

 

 

Published: January 22, 2013 12:01 AM EST
Updated: January 22, 2013 1:38 AM EST

Former Erie dentist seeks to avoid prison term

By LISA THOMPSON, Erie Times-News
lisa.thompson@timesnews.com

A former area dentist who pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicaid is hoping a judge will spare her a term in federal prison so she can better care for her family.

Federal sentencing guidelines recommend a prison sentence of a year to 18 months for the dentist, Kristi Ayn Liebau-Grassi, who admitted in September that she repeatedly billed the government for dental work that was unnecessary or never provided.

Her lawyer, however, is hoping to convince a judge to give her a lighter sentence because of her clean prior record, her family's needs and she accepted responsibility.

"The defendant is a loving and devoted parent whose maternal responsibilities may be greater than almost anyone who has stood for sentencing before this Court," the lawyer, David Ridge, wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court in Erie.

Erie PA dentist pleads guilty to fraud–Dr. Kristi Ayn Liebau-Grassi

Former Erie-area dentist pleads guilty to billing fraud

By ED PALATTELLA, Erie Times-News
ed.palattella@timesnews.com

Friday September 26, 2012 11:32 PM

Former Erie-area dentist Kristi Ayn Liebau-Grassi would have gone up against many of her former patients if she had gone to trial on fraud charges.

The patients or their parents were prepared to testify that Liebau-Grassi billed Medicaid for dental work -- including crowns and the equivalent of root canals for children -- that was unnecessary or never provided.

The courtroom confrontations will not occur.

Liebau-Grassi, 39, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Erie on Wednesday to 14 felony counts that she defrauded Medicaid by making false statements in health-care matters. The government said the fraud occurred from January 2008 through March 2011, when she was practicing at 4010 East Lake Road in Lawrence Park Township and at the UPMC Hamot Surgery Center.

Liebau-Grassi agreed to pay restitution of $289,000 and faces a year to 18 months in federal prison at her sentencing before U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin on Feb. 13.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Piccinini and Liebau-Grassi's lawyer, David Ridge, agreed that the federal sentencing guidelines call for that amount of time for Liebau-Grassi, who has no prior record and who will get credit for pleading guilty.

Liebau-Grassi formerly lived in the 6000 block of Bridlewood Drive, in Fairview Township, and now lives in Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston. She remains a licensed dentist, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. She is free on her own recognizance.

The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Liebau-Grassi, also identified in court records as Kristi Ayn Liebau, by filing what is called a criminal information against her in August. The federal government typically secures grand jury indictments, but Liebau-Grassi, signaling her desire to end the case quickly, agreed to waive an indictment and plead guilty to the information.

Liebau-Grassi spoke softly and dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she told McLaughlin she wanted to plead guilty.

The FBI and a Medicaid investigator with the state Attorney General's Office built the case against Liebau-Grassi. They opened the probe to review concerns about the dental work she said she provided to patients, most of whom were children, Piccinini said.

The investigators found Liebau-Grassi performed unnecessary work, performed work and then billed it as more expensive work, billed for work on teeth that did not exist and billed for procedures so numerous she could have not performed them in the allotted time, Piccinini said. He said patients and other dentists were prepared to testify against her.

In one case, Piccinini said, Liebau-Grassi billed for performing 16 pulpotomies -- or root canals for children -- and installing 16 steel crowns and four composite fillings, all in 17 minutes of surgery time.

Ridge, Liebau-Grassi's lawyer, has said she pleaded guilty to take responsibility for "any and all billing problems."

Liebau-Grassi on Wednesday admitted she was the sole person who signed the billing forms for her office.

ED PALATTELLA can be reached at 870-1813 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNpalattella.

Pacific Dental dentist charged with Medicaid fraud.

Here is the story that is out there about Dr. Liebau. As Paul Harvey would have said, “the rest of the story” is at the end.

 

Former Erie-area dentist charged with Medicaid fraud – GoErie.com

On Aug. 27, 2008, Kristi Ayn Liebau, then a dentist with an office in Lawrence Park Township, billed Medicaid for services she said she provided to a young patient.

That day, Liebau said, she had used composites to repair six teeth of the patient, identified in court records as M.J.

Federal investigators, however, found a problem with the procedures.

M.J.'s teeth were virtually brand new, raising questions about why Liebau would need to fix them.

The bill Liebau submitted for M.J.'s dental work, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Erie said, turned out to be false.

"None of the teeth that were billed for had yet to even erupt in the patient's mouth on July 23, 2008," the government alleged in court records.

Using the case of M.J. and 13 other patients -- most of them children -- the government on Friday charged Liebau with 14 felony counts of false statements relating to health-care matters.

Investigators said the fraudulent billings to Medicaid occurred from January 2008 through March 2011, when Liebau, 39, was practicing at 4010 East Lake Road in Lawrence Park, according to court records.

Liebau, who now lives in Texas, will end the case with a plea deal, her lawyer, David Ridge, said Tuesday.

"My client has decided to take full responsibility for any and all billing problems that existed while she was running her practice in Erie," Ridge said. "That is why we thought the best way to resolve this was by a negotiated plea as opposed to proceeding to trial."