Seven Years After First Reports–Dr. Tish Ballance Appears To Still Be Raping Medicaid System in North Carolina

WCNC TV-Stuart Watson's January 2010 report

Link to report

It has been seven years after Stuart Watson first reported on Doctors Tish Balance and Michael DeRose and their chain of dental clinics in North Carolina abusing children for financial gain.  It has been two and a half years since Tish and Meatball Mike settled with the government for $10 million dollars, yet Dr. Tish appears to still be doing her best to rape the medicaid system and abuse children doing it.
Who in North Carolina is NOT doing their job and protecting the children??  Who in North Carolina is turning a blind eye to Tish Ballance stealing your/our tax dollars? 
That is what is happening.  It has been reported right here for three years.  I know the agencies visit this blog.  I'm waiting on an answer.
What is the reason Dr. Tish Ballance is still allowed to steal money from us?  Why is she not been put on the "Exclusion" list; barred from participating in the Medicaid programs?   Meatball Mike finally made it, but not until 2009 and millions and millions of dollars later.
(of course we know there are ways around that little inconvenience don't we)
Here is a warning I received today from a parent:

I live in Hickory, NC.  I had heard about Tish Ballance on the news getting in trouble for Medicaid fraud, but did not remember her name. My son is 6. He went recently for a cleaning to a different dentist and they found a cavity. While I was waiting for his appointment, they did a free screening at his school which also detected a single cavity. When it came time to be filled, our dentist wanted to refer him to another dentist 30 miles away. i decided to find a local dentist that took Medicaid. i found Carolina West Dentist in Conover near my home. I took him there to Tish Ballance's new clinic for children with Medicaid. Just 2 weeks after 2 dentists had diagnosed him with a single cavity, she said he needed caps on 3 molars in addition to the cavity. That's when I checked into her office and found out she had been in trouble before. Beware of this office!!!

Related:
December 2009 Report on Dr. Tish and her horror house

Dr. Tish Ballance Still Getting Horrible Reviews in 2009

After getting wrapped up with Michael DeRose and being fined $10 Million Dollars as well as named in various lawsuits Dr. Tish Ballance hasn't learned one lesson but did anyone really expect it?

Stay away from Smile Starters, Access West Dental and any other dental clinic Dr. Tish Ballance is associated with!!

CORRECTION: Tish Ballance's clinic is named Carolina West, sorry 'bout that. It's original intended name was Access West when it was planned for Asheville.

Reviews are here:

• terrible experience
  
• My 5 year old daughter went to smile starters for an appointment to get some dental work done. I was told that bc she was nervous if they could not calm her down then they would stop and refer her to a sedation dentist. This did not happen, when she came out of her appointment after well over an hour later, she was very upset, crying, the back of her clothes were wet from sweat her hair was messy and wet from sweat and i was told that she had been combative and struggling but they still pulled 2 teeth from her like that. They should have stopped and just refered her. I have learned my lesson mothers and fathers never take your children to a dentist where you are not allowed to go in the room with them and be with them. They were terrible. (blessedme123, 12/03/2009)

• IRATE MOM
• by: Mark Boone CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The owners of a chain of dental clinics, with offices in Charlotte, will pay more than $10 million in response to a federal investigation into alleged Medicaid fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Wednesday. The owners of the company formerly known as Medicaid Dental Center did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, said attorney James Wyatt. As first reported in a WCNC investigation, some parents complained they took their children to the Medicaid Dental Centers on Freedom Drive and N. Tryon Street for what they believed to be routine visits. The Charlotte offices are now operating under the name ‘Smile Starters.’ Wyatt said the clinics are under new management. Christy Dillbeck, a west Charlotte mother, said she was asked to wait in the lobby of a Medicaid Dental Center as a dentist placed her then-four-year-old son on a papoose board, a device used to restrain children. The dentist then drilled into 16 of her son’s baby teeth and installed steel caps, without her knowledge, she said. “That’s a lot, a lot of work,” Dillbeck said. “And to imagine all of the children that had to go through what my son went through, it breaks my heart to even think of it.” At least six other families contacted WCNC with similar allegations. In a statement issued Wednesday morning, U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert said Medicaid Dental Center performed “baby root canals,” which were not medically necessary. The procedures were performed between 2001 and 2003, Shappert said. “The dentists subjected their child patients to invasive and sometimes painful procedures, often for the sake of obtaining money from the North Carolina Medicaid program,” said Jeffrey Bucholtz, an N.C. Assistant Attorney General. Dentists Letitia Ballance and Michael DeRose are named in the government settlement as co-owners of the Medicaid Dental Center. Wyatt, who has represented Ballance and DeRose in both federal and state inquiries, said they are no longer working as dentists in Charlotte and are in the process of selling their North Carolina dental practice. Federal authorities said Medicaid Dental Center and its owners will reimburse the government at least $5 million for the allegedly false claims and another $5 million in fines. A portion of the settlement amount will be distributed to the N.C. Education Fund. None of the settlement money will go to the parents of the children who underwent the treatment, said attorney Darren Dawson, who represents five families which are considering a lawsuit against the company formerly known as Medicaid Dental Center. (momofthree, 03/13/2009)

Tish Ballance's Hands Back In The Till

Well in just a few weeks is the scheduled opening date of Dr. Tish Ballance's newest medicaid dental clinic, Carolina West Dental located in Waynesville, NC. Can you believe after settling a claim with Dr. Michael DeRose of Pueblo, CO in the amount of $10 million dollars the state of North Carolina is going to let her hands back into the Medicaid till?

Is it just me that finds this outrageous? Surely not.

Above is a picture of what your child may well look like if they go to Dr. Ballance's dental clinic.

This is the same woman who thought it was perfectly fine to put strap innocent children down in papoose boards and fill their mouths with 16-18 stainless steel crowns!

Tish Ballance, DDS Small Business Loan

Here is a link to a list of Small Business Association loans in North Carolina.  About 3/4 of the way down the page you will see Letitia L. Ballance, DDS, PA was approved for a 1.3 million dollar loan in January, on the 28th to be exact or that's how I read it anyway. 

That was about 4 months before she entered into the $10 million dollar settlement with the government for Medicaid fraud.

Wonder what happened to this money?

Dr. Tish Ballance Still Living High

Who says it's not profitable to accept medicaid dental patients? Here is Dr. Letitia (Tish) Ballance's home just outside Charlotte, North Carolina on Charlie Hipp Road. It's close to 10,000 square feet, sets on 8.5 acres, has a stable and valued at around 1 million dollars. Even though she was ordered to pay her part of a $10 million dollar settlement for Medicaid fraud, over treating children, strapping them in papoose boards to increase patient flow through the office she's still living in high cotton as some would say.

Here is a picture of it when it was still under construction.

One thing I know for sure is that Tish Ballance won't be driving to Waynesville to work in that clinic she's planning on opening in Waynesville, NC. I drove it and from her house to that clinic is real close to 140 miles one way.

Tish Ballance To Open Clinic in Waynesville, NC October 2008

After much discussion on what the heck happened to Tish Ballance and her Access West dental clinic that was supposed to open in Asheville, NC in July 2008 I thought it was time to just go find out for myself.
So I took off to Asheville to check things out.  There is no sign of her Access West Clinic in Asheville and the number you find of the Internet is no longer in service, nor is there a current phone number for Access West, so hopefully we stopped that theivin dentist in Asheville.
However and this is a big however!  She is opening up a clinic in Waynesville, NC about 25 miles northwest of Asheville close to Maggie Valley and Cherokee, NC.  It's a beautiful little town nestled at the foot of the mountains.  A good place for a crook to hide out.
Her new clinic's name is Carolina West Dental Clinic and will be located in Waynesville Plaza shopping center in the old Family Dollar building.  It appeared the plumbing is in for all the dental stations but not one stud has been put up in the huge building. 
I asked the construction guys about the place and they directed me across the parking lot to a small tan building housing a construction company's office who builds log home among other things.
I spoke with the gentlemen in the office and they told me the place should be ready to open at the end of October, so we still have some time left to stop this clinic from opening as well. 
Evidently times are hard for Tish as her contractor seems to be also acting as her human resources person.  I say this since I presented my self as looking for a job and the new clinic and he insisted that I could get my resume together and leave it with him and he would see to it that it got to the right person.
But there seems to be no sign of her greed little hands in Asheville unless she used some other name to open her clinic other than Access West or Carolina West Dental.
It's time we warn the good citizens of Waynesville what kind of person is about to start treating the children in this small quaint town.

Another Child Files Law Suit Against Smile Starters-Medicaid Dental Centers-Tish Ballance-Michael DeRose-Heather Berkhiemer

April 19, 2008

Child sues dentists over care: Lawsuit alleges malpractice in treatment at Medicaid practice

Karen Garloch
Apr 19, 2008 (The Charlotte Observer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --

A Charlotte child who got 14 "baby root canals" and stainless steel crowns on the same day in 2003 has sued three dentists with Medicaid Dental Center, claiming dental malpractice.

The suit against the privately owned chain of dental clinics was filed a week after the clinics' owners agreed to pay $10 million to resolve allegations that they made fraudulent claims to the N.C. Medicaid program for unnecessary dental work on poor children.

In the suit filed Friday in Mecklenburg Superior Court, Antavia Digsby, through her mother, Angela, alleged the treatment by dentist Heather Berkheimer "fell below the accepted standards of dental care."

Digsby also sued Letitia Ballance of Mooresville and Michael Anthony DeRose of Pueblo, Colo., dentists and co-owners of Medicaid Dental Center, alleging its policy was to "perform as much treatment as possible in one appointment."

Medicaid Dental Center, now called Smile Starters, has clinics in Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem.

Antavia was 5 on May 9, 2003, when her mother took her to the Charlotte clinic to have her teeth cleaned. Antavia, now 9, was insured by Medicaid, the state-federal health program for low-income and disabled residents.

On that day, the suit says, Berkheimer performed 14 pulpotomies, similar to root canals, and mounted 14 steel crowns on the child's baby teeth.

Employees at the center restrained Antavia by tying her down on "a papoose board" and refused to allow her mother to be in the room, the suit says. Berkheimer documented that Antavia was "very uncooperative and could not follow directions," the suit says.

Berkheimer, who lives in Southern Pines, could not be reached for comment.

Charlotte attorney James Wyatt, who represents Medicaid Dental Center and its owners, said the suit is "utterly without merit. All the dental work that was done was not only necessary but imperative."

He said the child's mother "consented to all of the work. The real question that needs to be asked is why a parent would bring a child in with her teeth in that condition."

Wyatt said last week that his clients agreed to the $10 million settlement to avoid expensive litigation, but they did not admit the government's allegations.

In 2003, WCNC-TV, now the Observer's news partner, revealed allegations that Medicaid Dental Center had performed unnecessary dental work on children.

In 2005, the N.C. Board of Dental Examiners disciplined nine dentists after an investigation of the clinics.

Ballance and DeRose were placed on probation for three years.

Berkheimer and six other dentists who worked in the clinics received written reprimands that will remain permanently in their N.C. files and with the National Practitioner Data Bank.

The other dentists are: John Lyons, Jeffrey Zieziula and Erron Brady, all of Charlotte; Lori Petree and Christopher Ballinger of Winston-Salem; and Michelle Wilkerson of Raleigh.

According to board documents, at least eight children, some as young as 4, had multiple teeth pulled and root canals performed during single appointments at MDC clinics. Some had as many as 16 pulpotomies and stainless steel crowns during the same visit.

Darren Dawson, a Greenville, N.C., lawyer who filed the Digsby suit, said he represents nine families of children treated at MDC clinics in Charlotte and Winston-Salem, and says he'll file more suits claiming that excessive and unwarranted dental work was done.

Board investigators have made unannounced inspections at each of the MDC clinics since 2005, and authorities said they have been "substantially in compliance" with standards.

I would think it might be a bit difficult for the attorney's for Medicaid Dental Center and The DeRose clan to get them out of this mess, since this blogger alone can tract these exact same kind of complaints and allegations dating back years in the DeRose past and current connection to Small Smiles/FORBA, LLC.

With that, and the vast number of complaints that will likely be coming soon against Small Smiles/FORBA maybe finally the DeRose Reign of Terror demise and not one minute too soon!!

Michael A. DeRose is now and always has been directly associated with Small Smiles, as is his father, Dr. Ed DeRose, his brother, Dan DeRose and Dr. William Mueller just to name a few on the short list.

I hope soon to hear that the State of North Carolina and it's Dental Association have ran Tish Ballance, Dr. Michael DeRose and each dentist in the news report above out of the state on a rail. At the least I call on the state to remove, revoke, and ban these dentist from ever practicing dentistry in this state or any other for that matter.

As I have posted on this very blog, Tish Ballance and "others" as well as Dr. Michael DeRose are advertising for employees right this minute to come work at yet another clinic, Access West and more Smile Starters, designed to do exactly for what they are now being sued!