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.
by BYRON HARRIS
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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.
