Mother Files Suit Against Dr. Tish Ballance, Dr. Michael DeRose and Medicaid Dental Center

September 11, 2008

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Tish Ballance's Hands Back In The Till

Well in just a few weeks is the scheduled opening date of Dr. Tish Ballance's newest medicaid dental clinic, Carolina West Dental located in Waynesville, NC. Can you believe after settling a claim with Dr. Michael DeRose of Pueblo, CO in the amount of $10 million dollars the state of North Carolina is going to let her hands back into the Medicaid till?

Is it just me that finds this outrageous? Surely not.

Above is a picture of what your child may well look like if they go to Dr. Ballance's dental clinic.

This is the same woman who thought it was perfectly fine to put strap innocent children down in papoose boards and fill their mouths with 16-18 stainless steel crowns!

Small Smiles Says It's Family Owned

Small Smiles has their company info on Careerbuilder.com (click here) Here they say they are family owned. I sure wish they would make up their minds on who owns them don't you guys? I guess it depends on who is asking, right?

Wild Smiles Just Another Name For Small Smiles

Forba's newest name change Wild Smiles is now open in Houston. Don't be fooled by the name, it is still FORBA, it's still Texas Smiles USA, it is still Small Smiles! I expect all of the clinics may soon see a name change. Picking Wild Smiles is quite appropriate don't you think?

WILD SMILES DENTAL CENTERS OF HOUSTON
5720-D Bellaire Boulevard — between Hillcroft Avenue and Chimney Rock Road
713-668-5437

Colorado Has Enacted A New Dental Practice Ownership Law

It looks like Colorado has enacted some new laws and regulations regarding dental practice ownership. After reading the new law it appears to be geared toward Forba/Small Smiles. If so this would be the second time Colorado has had to enact laws especially geared toward these clinics. The first one was limiting the number of crowns done in one setting and limiting the amount of time they can keep a child tied up in a papoose board.

Here is the new law:

Colorado Enacts New Laws Regarding Dental Practice Ownership
On March 20, 2008, Governor Bill Ritter, Jr. signed House Bill 08-1134 into law effective August 5, 2008. A portion of this bill concerns the disclosure of the ownership of a practice that provides dental care to patients. This law will directly affect all dental or dental hygiene practices in Colorado. Specifically, this new law requires that certain information regarding the ownership of the dental or hygiene practice be available upon request at the reception desk of the practice during normal business hours. The law further provides that this information be made available on a form approved by the Board. This ownership form is available on the Board’s website here. The availability of this information is a mandatory requirement, effective August 5, 2008.

Another important provision in this legislation is that it allows an heir to the dentist or dental hygienist to serve as a proprietor of the deceased’s practice for up to one year after their death, regardless of whether the heir is licensed to practice. And that upon good cause shown, may petition the Board for an extension of the temporary ownership period by up to an additional twelve months, if necessary, to allow them sufficient time to sell or otherwise dispose of the practice.

I especially enjoyed the form they designed to be filled out and on hand at the front desk for anyone to be able to ask and see exactly who really owns a particular clinic. Of course Forba is notorious for using the licenses of dentist that are actually Forba employees and saying they are the owners. They do this in several states, Ken Knott and Robert Andrus are prime examples of this.

What blows my mind is what amount of money would a dentist have to receive in compensation to loan out their licenses like that. Of course when Forba fills out this little form it will be just more fraudulent evidence won't it.

Does you Colorado Dental Clinic have this form on hand at the front desk? It should, since this law took effect August 8, 2008.

Forba's Banking Habits

Ever wonder where Forba /Small Smiles does it's banking? Well so did I. I was able to obtain a copy of the back of a check Forba Holding, LLC deposited into their account. I removed the actual account number since I figured none of you actually wanted to make a deposit in their account.

They make their deposits to Associated Bank (Assocaited Banc-Corp) that has branches in Wisconsin and Illinois, which by the way are two states they don't have even one clinic in operation. Am I the only one that finds that a bit odd?

There is another thing I find odd that's I've been told by those who either work for or have worked for Forba. They pay out of various accounts. Some get paid from Children's Medicaid Clinic, and others paid from Forba Holding,LLC some paid from Forba NY, LLC and I believe some get their bonus checks coming from yet another company name.

If you get checks from Forba email me and tell me where your checks come from and what bank they are written on.


Clickable Email Me Link

So who owns 415 N. Grand Street, Pueblo, Colorado-Forba's Colorado Address?

Want to know who owns "Touchdown Properties" click here. If you don't want to take the time to click I'll just tell you. It's Dan DeRose. Well, Dan DeRose and Michael A. Roumph. If you search for Michael, he's a huge part of DD Marketing, Dan's other company.

I know that Michael DeRose and his daddy, Eddie take a lot of heat over this Small Smiles/Forba thing, probably since they are dentists themselves, but Danny boy is up to his friggin neck in this whole thing.

Forba Holding, LLC Sues Adventure Dental and Vision (Hero Management, Ron Montano)

I reported a month or so ago about Ron Montano, his dental management company, Hero Management and his string of clinics called Adventure Dental and Vision.  I reported that he used to work for Small Smiles.  His separation from the company is conflicting, I've heard he quit, I've heard he was fired...not that it really matters.

Well, in April 2007 Forba Holding file a lawsuit again Ron Montano and Hero Management and the cause in question is the "Economic Espionage Act of 1996, section 18:1831.  Forba was demanding $350,000 in damages according to the suit.  Cause Number 2007cv00675.  This particular case was dismissed on September 21, 2007 with both parties agreeing not to pursue this any further.  I suspect Forba really didn't want ALL their trade secrets being aired in open court don't you?

According to Wikipedia the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 is as follows:

The Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (see RFD 18 U.S.C. § 1831) makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime.

This law contains two sections criminalizing two sorts of activity. The first, 18 U.S.C. § 1831(a), criminalizes the misappropriation of trade secrets (including conspiracy to misappropriate trade secrets and the subsequent acquisition of such misappropriated trade secrets) with the knowledge or intent that the theft will benefit a foreign power. Penalties for violation are fines of up to US$500,000 per offense and imprisonment of up to 15 years for individuals, and fines of up to US$10 million for organizations,

The second section, 18 U.S.C. § 1832, criminalizes the misappropriation of trade secrets related to or included in a product that is produced for or placed in interstate (including international) commerce, with the knowledge or intent that the misappropriation will injure the owner of the trade secret. Penalties for violation of section 1832 are imprisonment for up to 10 years for individuals (no fines) and fines of up to US$5 million for organizations.

In addition to these specific penalties, section 1834 of the EEA also requires criminal forfeiture of (1) any proceeds of the crime and property derived from proceeds of the crime and (2) any property used, or intended to be used, in commission of the crime.

The Act authorizes civil proceedings by the Department of Justice to enjoin violations of the Act, but does not create a private cause of action. Thus, victims or putative victims must work with the U.S. Attorney in order to obtain an injunction.

I don't really understand exactly why it was Forba vs Hero since this is a criminal act and Forba would have to file a criminal complaint with the US Attorney to get this suit filed and according to the filings this is a civil suit. 

Anyway, evidently Forba says Ron Montano took some 'trade' secrets with him when he left Small Smiles and is using them to profit from his Adventure Dental and Vision clinics.

The attorney for Forba was William T. Slamkowski of Hensley, Kim and Holzer in Denver.  The attorney for Ron Montano  was Brett Painter of Davis, Graham and & Stubbs in Denver.

Update:

Ok, I finally got my hands of the law suit and Forba was ticked off because two of their employees, besides Ron himself went over to Adventure Dental at the time it was called Captain Smiles.  The two others that jumped Forba's ship was Joseph Lee and Adam Ditto.  Lee and Ditto supposed took all this sensitive info over to Montano....

Tish Ballance, DDS Small Business Loan

Here is a link to a list of Small Business Association loans in North Carolina.  About 3/4 of the way down the page you will see Letitia L. Ballance, DDS, PA was approved for a 1.3 million dollar loan in January, on the 28th to be exact or that's how I read it anyway. 

That was about 4 months before she entered into the $10 million dollar settlement with the government for Medicaid fraud.

Wonder what happened to this money?

Dr. Tish Ballance Still Living High

Who says it's not profitable to accept medicaid dental patients? Here is Dr. Letitia (Tish) Ballance's home just outside Charlotte, North Carolina on Charlie Hipp Road. It's close to 10,000 square feet, sets on 8.5 acres, has a stable and valued at around 1 million dollars. Even though she was ordered to pay her part of a $10 million dollar settlement for Medicaid fraud, over treating children, strapping them in papoose boards to increase patient flow through the office she's still living in high cotton as some would say.

Here is a picture of it when it was still under construction.

One thing I know for sure is that Tish Ballance won't be driving to Waynesville to work in that clinic she's planning on opening in Waynesville, NC. I drove it and from her house to that clinic is real close to 140 miles one way.