Showing posts with label Today Show Investigation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Today Show Investigation. Show all posts

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Health and Human Services or Health and Hedge-fund Services? When it comes to Medicaid dental mills, it’s the latter.

December 11, 2012
On Tuesday, December 11, 2012, The Today Show aired an investigative report about the on going troubles at the Small Smiles Dental Centers. Interviews included one with Health and Human Services (HHS) officials in charge of overseeing the compliance of the notoriously troubled clinics.

If you’ve not seen the report, please take time to do that here.

The segment included an interview with a HHS-OIG Branch spokesperson. However, if not for the HHS-OIG seal displayed one would presume it came out of the the PR department at CSHM headquarters.


NBS News Senior Investigative Correspondent, Lisa Myers asks HHS-OIG spokesperson, “They’ve had 4 bites at the apple, when is enough, enough?”  


HHS-OIG responded with this check list:HHS

1. “Dentists have been fired” – Well, dentists are fired there every day!! They are fired every day because they don’t meet the production numbers set by the corporate office. Their turn over had been setting at 48% since the beginning!

What about the Chief Dental Officer – Steven Adair, DDS?  He actually got a promotion. Dr. Adair is the author of the news letter for CSHM in which he suggests instead of the papoose board, try the “superman cape” method.

What is the Superman Cape Technique? Here, read this!

Compliance officers? – Yes, a few. They have burned through 3 in 2.5 years. CSHM will not hesitate to been throw one under the bus, blaming them for falsified reports to the OIG.

2. “Clinics have been closed” – Yes, they have filed bankruptcy! The started closing clinics in early 2011! HHS only forced 1 clinic in actually close – Manassas Virginia.

3. “This is not the same company” – True, it simply filed for bankruptcy, reorganized with some of the same investors in the background, and changed it’s name, replaced the CEO and President. But that was in 2011!

3. “The Independent Monitor is telling us that Quality of Care is consistently improving” – The same independent monitor in place for 3 years! The one CSHM pays. The one whose head dental investigator is buddies with the company’s Chief Dental Officer. So exactly when did that “improvement” begin? June of 2012? Certainly not in April 2012? The new people in charge actually  stepped in October 2011. It just wasn’t on paper with the bankruptcy court until June 2012.

The company has been in the news, how many times since 2007?
Countless!!!