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."
