March 2011
They may not be all smiles, but Delta Dental and Smile Center clinics have reached a multimillion-dollar settlement over a fraud claim, avoiding a trial that was to begin next month in Hennepin County.
Smile Center has agreed to pay Delta Dental $750,000 and drop its claims to about $3.1 million that Delta Dental had held in escrow to cover disputed payments.
[Smile Center paid off Delta to drop it, in my opinion.]
Delta Dental, which administers dental benefits for insurance companies and had no financial stake in the suit, will turn over the bulk of the $3.85 million settlement to Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, plus a handful of smaller health plans that receive state funding to provide dental care to poor Minnesotans. About 10 percent involves claims under Delta's commercial plans.
A portion of the plans' share will be returned to the state's Department of Human Services, said Robert Milis, an attorney with Blue Cross.
The Smile Center has clinics in Deerwood, Big Lake, Savage, St. Paul and Brooklyn Park. It was started in 1990 and states on its website that it takes insurance that many other dental offices do not, including government-funded insurance.
