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Goodwin Orthodontics whistleblowers awarded shares of money

By Jim McBride
jim.mcbride@amarillo.com

September 19, 2013 - 4:57pm 

A Travis County judge has awarded more than $22,000 in legal fees to an Amarillo law firm that helped expose more than $1 million in Medicaid fraud at a local orthodontics clinic.

Amarillo attorney Phil Russ, who represented three former employees of Goodwin Orthodontics, credited Kristen De Los Santos, Sandy De Los Santos and Lissa Eason with exposing health care fraud at the clinic that led to the federal conviction of Amarillo orthodontist David Goodwin.

“The money needs to go to those women,” Russ said Thursday. “This is an example of how responsible citizens can help save our taxpayer dollars from being drained away from government programs by fraud. It takes a whistleblower who sees it happening to sound the alarm, because fraud is a game of stealth and concealment.”

On Wednesday, a Travis County judge awarded the state of Texas and the three Amarillo women more than $4.2 million in damages against Goodwin and the clinic in a whistleblower lawsuit.

Russ said Thursday the women could receive some money from the case if the state and federal authorities collect enough restitution from Goodwin and the clinic. If state and federal authorities collect $4 million from the clinic, the women could theoretically split $630,000 to $840,000, he said.

Taxpayers spent $13 million on orthodontic transportation in Texas

Children picked up and escorted to dentist office for orthodontic treatment when dentist was not even in the state. 

Dollars are scarcely available to treat children who are in  very serious and real need, yet hundreds of millions freely distributed for unnecessary and useless braces on children in the Medicaid system.

These are just two of the allegations in the latest installment from Byron Harris of WFAA-TV in Dallas.

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by BYRON HARRIS
Bio | Email
WFAA

Taxpayers spent $13 million on orthodontic transportation | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth

Posted on October 6, 2011 at 11:42 PM

Last year, Texas taxpayers spent $184 million so kids on Medicaid could get free braces. Taxpayers did not just pay orthodontists for doing work many in the middle class consider a luxury. Under Medicaid, the public spent $13 million on orthodontic transportation.

Children got picked up, taken to orthodontists' offices, had their braces installed or worked on and were taken home again. Medicaid pays for up to 26 trips per patient. Many experts say that's evidence of a well-intentioned program gone wrong.

In his office in Dallas, Dr. Deji Fashemo looks at a three-dimensional photo of a child who badly needs orthodontic help. It is a mouth so crammed with teeth it's painful to look at. So in need of structural repair, the patient can hardly open to brush his teeth.