Sentinel Capital Partners, LLC sells ReachOut mobile dental company to Morgan Stanley Private Equity–January 2011

 

Searching” Private Equity Dental” brings up a whole mess of trouble!  Here is just one.

Sentinel Capital Partners, LLC invested $22 million dollars in ReachOut Healthcare America, Ltd in 2007, holding 80% of the company.  In August 2008 ReachOut Healthcare bought up Mobile Dentists,it’s closest competitor.  In 2010 they added “Help A Child Smile.”  ReachOut also offers vision services.

Based in Phoenix Arizona-“ReachOut sends dentists-on-wheels to service low-income children in public schools under the government's Medicaid contracts. It has separate programs for the elderly and the military.  ReachOut operates in 21 states.”

---

“ ReachOut Healthcare America (RHA) is amongst the nation’s leading administrative services organization for mobile dentistry and healthcare.

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, RHA provides administrative support to dental PCs. RHA and its affiliate, Home Dental Group, has a  staff of  motivated professionals who will ensure their commitments are fulfilled to the highest standard. RHA works with PCs that possess a diverse patient base including children in our nation’s Headstart programs, foster programs and public schools.”

At the time of Sentinel’s purchase of ReachOut, the company had less than $5 million in EBITDA.  At the time of the sale, the EBITDA had increased to $17 million.  Sentinel Capital Partners, LLC unloaded ReachOut Heathcare America, Ltd on Morgan Stanley Private Equity in January 2011. 

ReachOut Healthcare America, Ltd. (RHA) was formerly known as Health Kids Dental and Seniors Dental.

Co-Founders of ReachOut Healthcare America:
Michael Howell
Dan Goldsmith

---

From The Deal.com
ReachOut Healthcare America Ltd. and Sirona Dental Systems Inc. -- Fixing teeth may not be the most glamorous of investment picks, but it has drawn in substantial private equity capital. Two niche providers stood out for the healthy returns that their sponsors extracted through timely exits. Phoenix-based ReachOut sends dentists-on-wheels to service low-income children in public schools under the government's Medicaid contracts. It has separate programs for the elderly and the military. Sentinel Capital Partners LLC invested $22 million in 2007 and held 80% of ReachOut. The company, with less than $5 million of EBITDA at the time, was Sentinel's third investment in a dental business but the first where government reimbursements accounted for nearly 100% of accounts. ReachOut added Mobile Dentists in August 2008 and Help A Child Smile in 2010. With organic growth, EBITDA had reached $17 million by the time Morgan Stanley Private Equity took over as new owner in January. The sale allowed Sentinel to book profits of between 6 and 7 times its cost.

---

Sentinel Capital Partners other dental company investments include:
Castle Dental Centers, Inc-sold in 2004
Metro Dentalcare-sold in 2007

Kool Smiles Dental owners purchased Midwest/Mountain Dental- April 2011

Mountain Dental and Midwest Dental operated by Dr. Jeff Moos is another dental chain owned by a Private Equity firm- the same one who owns Kool Smiles-Friedman, Fleischer & Lowe, out of San Francisco!  A “Mike Lindley” is on the board of Mountain Dental.
Friedman, Fleischer & Lowe, (FFL)the private investment firm who owns and operated NCDR, LLC – Kool Smiles Dental Centers purchased Midwest Dental from Cressley & Company April 2011.
Cressley & Co, along with CIT Group were leaders in the recapitalizaition of Midwest Dental in May 2007.  Cressley purchased MWD from Svoboda.

---

Here is the story from “The Middle Market”
by Anthony Noto
April 7, 2011

San Francisco-based FFL is investing out of its 2007-vintage Friedman Fleischer & Lowe Capital Partners III fund, which targets companies with enterprise values within the $50 million to $500 million range.
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. FFL is acquiring the Mondovi, Wisc.-based target out of Thoma Cressey Bravo Fund VIII LP.
Chicago-based Thoma Cressey led a recapitalization of Midwest Dental in May 2007 and purchased all of its interests from Svoboda Collins LLC. Terms were not disclosed.
Calls to Aaron Money, the FFL partner leading the latest acquisition, were not returned. A spokesperson at Midwest Dental could not be reached.
FFL already owns two companies in the dental space. Portfolio companies NCDR LLC and DPMS Inc. provide facilities and support staff to dental groups operating under the Kool Smiles brand, according to the PE shop’s website. FFL acquired Atlanta-based NCDR and San Ramon, Calif.-based DRMS in 2004 and 2006 respectively.
[ NCDR, LLC and DPMS, Inc were really just Kool Smiles whether it be Kool Smiles 2 or Kool Smiles 3 or whatever.  They merged a few months back and guess what, they are still NCDR, LLC - Kool Smiles]
Purchasing Midwest Dental would not serve as an add-on to NCDR or DRMS. 
Other midmarket PE firms have capitalized on M&A within the dental space as well. On Dec. 29, Sentinel Capital Partners sold Phoenix-based ReachOut Healthcare America Ltd., a provider of dental support service and care to underprivileged children, seniors, and military personnel. Terms were not disclosed.
A month earlier, dental services company Smile Brands Group Inc., backed by Freeman Spogli & Co., found a new private equity owner in Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. The price of that secondary buyout was not disclosed, but the Santa Ana, Calif. company said last April that it hoped to go public with an enterprise value of about $470 million.

---

Here is the story from LBO Wire

Cressey & Co. Passing Midwest Dental To Friedman Fleische Lowe
Shasha Dai
08 April 2011
Midwest Dental Holdings, a provider of management services to dental offices, may have its third private equity owner in four years if a pending sale to Friedman Fleischer & Lowe LLC proceeds as planned.
San Francisco firm Friedman Fleischer is buying the Mondovi, Wis., company from its current owner Cressey & Co., said a person familiar with the situation.
A spokesman for Friedman Fleischer declined to comment. David Schuppan, a Cressey principal; and Jim Myer, president and chief financial officer of Midwest, didn't return calls for comment.
Midwest provides management support for functions ranging from handling back-office work and marketing to finding medical assistants and dental hygienists.

Cressey's predecessor, Thoma Cressey Bravo, bought the company in 2007 from fellow buyout firm Svoboda Collins LLC for an undisclosed sum. LBO Wire reported then that Svoboda Collins saw more than three times its money, representing an internal rate of return of over 50%. Svoboda Collins acquired Midwest in 2004.
Midwest had about 450 employees, LBO Wire reported when Thoma Cressey Bravo bought the companyin 2007. More recent financial or staffing information wasn't available.

Thoma Bravo Cressey split in 2008 into two firms, Thoma Bravo and Cressey & Co., with the latter focusing on health-care investments.
Cressey & Co. closed its current fund, Cressey & Co. Fund IV LP, with $350 million in early 2010.
Reach Cressey & Co. at 312-945-5735.
http://www.cresseyco.com
The dental services provider may have its third private equity owner in four years if the sale goes through.

---

Cressey & Company
2525 West End Ave # 1175
Nashville, TN 37203-1793
(615) 369-8400

[Keystone Education and Youth Services, LLC has an office on West End Avenue in Nashville as well.  According to Bloomberg, Michael Lindley, Rodney Cawood and Tim Richter are still the top dogs over there.  They may have sold their interest to UHS, but I believe they really just did exactly what Jeff Moos did, recapitalized his income.]
Cressey & Company
233 South Wacker Dr.
Sears Tower, Ste 920
Chicago, IL  60606
312-777-4424
[Another odd factoid here, there is a Mike Lindley on the board of Mountain Dental and Midwest Dental-Mountain Dental is of the same company, but the clinics in Colorado and New Mexico are operated under the name of Mountain Dental-you can check the company filings at the Secretary of State offices in New Mexico for Mountain Dental and Secretary of State office of Iowa for Midwest Dental]

Church Street Health Management-Small Smiles Dental Centers-Why I’m Here

Aetna DMO only offers bottom of the barrel dental provider

This is a great example of an informed consumer.  “Jenny” sent me this just the other day.   Thanks “Jenny”!

From Lincoln Nebraska

My company gives a choice of Aetna PPO or Aetna DMO.  I was looking over the options and found the DMO sounded nice but after doing a search it turned up only one option for me, Blome Family Dentistry with Gregory and Sara Blome(father and daughter).  I hit one of the many "rate your doctor" websites and found that they both had sanctions against them.  Both of the sanctions had to deal with the Mother(Cindy Blome as stated on the staff page of their website).  She worked(maybe stills works) at the office and in 2008 the DEA looked into the large amount of hydrocodone being ordered by the office.  The father Gregory had gotten himself put on probation claiming he knew nothing about it and then in 2009 the daughter Sara was put on probation about the very same thing.  The mother was ordering these for her "migraines" but the sanctions states(Under Sara's) :

Poster recounts trauma of being strapped down

Dental Fear Central

Well, I've not been to the dentist in about 5 or so years. I don't remember the last time, to be honest.
I have always had a huge fear of dentists, but my biggest trauma was being held down for cleanings and fillings as a child every 6 months. Even though I was cooperative, I would be strapped down. Being an abuse victim, this scares me to death. My other fear is the pain, as I am on long-term opiate therapy for chronic pain (my spine is just totally obliterated) stemming from an accident and cancer.
I know I have many problems with my teeth, and it is humiliating to go to the dentist. I have a lot of decay at the gum line, I know I have periodontal/gum disease, and I have many cavities I can feel, esp along the molar gum line on the lower jaw. I also have one tooth that cracked off halfway but that never has hurt. I have been eating Motrin like candy for a month, putting this off. Just thinking about calling a dentist made me go into panic mode. But finally I cannot take this lower jaw pain anymore. I know I have impacted wisdom teeth and several huge cavities on that side that hurts. The Motrin doesn't help at all anymore, and although most would probably think that with my narcotics I wouldn't feel pain...I do. It doesn't touch the tooth pain whatsoever.
I don't even know what the cause of my jaw pain is...the whole right lower side hurts. I have TMJ problems from an accident in which I hit my lower jaw on the steering wheel as well. So many problems!!!
Besides the fear of the dentist, my "rationalization" for so long has been that I don't have the money to get these fixed. I know it truly doesn't make sense, but...it was my excuse. For what little income I do manage to get, through selling things and whatnot, goes toward my two young kids. I avoided the dentist for so long because I had such a hard time finding a dentist that would accept payment plans, etc. My mom had to help me call places. Finally I found one yesterday, and I am hoping they will be able to help me. It is there that I will be going this morning.
Sorry for the length of this post. I have not slept all night, partly from the pain of my jaw, but mostly from sheer terror. I am also extremely worried about the pain, as I cannot just get narcotics from anybody. They all must come from my pain management doc, but he is not in the office until Monday. So that just adds one more level of fear on me. I hope and pray the dentist is kind and gentle, cause otherwise I may lose it!
I really appreciate finding that there is a forum out there for people who fear the dentist as much as I do. One of my friends goes to a sleep dentist, and gets knocked out for everything. She has a bad needle phobia as well. I don't' care about needles, I just fear the dentist in general! lol I wish I could afford the thousands of dollars it cost to see a sleep dentist. I will be happy just to be able to eat again and not suck down a bottle of Motrin like candy.
The worst part is, I feel like such a hypocrite for being so adamant about my kids brushing and flossing and seeing the dentist. When I haven't gone for ages. I had so much trouble as a child with teeth problems that I am always telling my kids "You don't want to have teeth like mine!".
I apologize for the long, rambling post. It sure feels good to know I will be understood here, though. My family thinks I'm crazy for avoiding the dentist. To them, quote "I should just get over it." That's their answer to everything. Suck it up and go.
Thanks for listening.

Dr. Kim Henry wanted to be heard, so here ya go, Kim

 

Saturday July 2, 2011
2:18 PM

Subject: You think you are valiant crusader

Came across your blog searching for info on Church Street Management, who sent me glossy brochures trying to hire me.

You are a prolific writer, but a real coward, as you have the comments disabled on all of your posts.

I am an enemy of corporate clinics also, but you don't know crap about dentistry, lady. You are just a pompous windbag.

Kim Henry, D.M.D.
henrius@mindspring.com

 

Clearly Dr. Kim Henry hasn’t been here before it would be clear that comments are open, even anonymously, and I do not delete for filter any of them.

At one time, when I fist installed the Disgus comment software, it was set to cut comments off at 30 days, that was the default.  When I noticed this I immediately corrected this problem!

More of Dr. Kim Henry:  Ghana Community.com

I am a US citizen who sent quite a bit of money to a Ghanaian woman to start her in a tailoring business. This included money to buy land for the shop.
A good while later I was contacted by a man purporting to be an Interpol officer, with a record of my money transfers. He told me this woman and her accomplice was a scammer.
He suggested a Ghanaian attorney who would help with their prosecution for a fee. I paid him.
I supposedly won a $21,300 award in a Ghanaian court against these scammers. To pay it, the scammer's bank accounts were supposedly seized. I received a copy of the one-page court decree, but it looks suspiciously phony.
The attorney said Ghana levies a 7% tax on damage award. He said I must forward $1483 to pay the court before the check can be turned over the the Ghanaian Embassy in Washington for me to pick up. Frankly, the whole thing sounds like a scam.
Could anyone with any knowledge of the Ghanian legal system help me? Does this 7% tax exists? How can I verify the court award?
Thank you!
Dr. Kim Henry
henrius@mindspring.com

I think we now know why she was sent a flier to come join the crew at CSHM.

…more on Dr. Kim Henry:

Dr. Kim Henry says:

August 17, 2009 at 1:26 am

I traveled to Ghana in 2006 for the first time. I was impressed by the friendliness of people there. I met a young girl in Aburi Garden who was gracious enough to show me around.

When I left, an e-mail correspondence ensued, in which she confessed romantic attraction to me.

Very soon, she wrote to tell me that she lost her job in a sewing factory. As I was grateful for her help as a tour guide one day, I sent her the money for a sewing machine, business cards, and a cell phone.

Later she said it was impossible to work in her house, so I sent her money to have a container converted to an office. She reportedly placed this on a street on Tema until the officials cleaned off the streets and forced her to move.

After that I sent her money to buy a piece of property adjacent to a busy road. The lawyer fees and land registration fees were enormous. And of course along the way, there were the usual illnesses of the girl and her family, them getting thrown out of their house, and countless other supposed difficulties.

When I finally said “no” to sending any more money, I got an e-mail from a supposed Interpol investigator saying they had been tracking these scammers for awhile and wanted to convict them. He had me send a lot of supporting documentation about my transactions.

The the policeman told me in Ghana courts of law, the victim of a scam crime must pay for the prosecution by a good attorney. I thought this was very weird, but I agreed to pay $1400 for the lawyer.

The case supposedly went to trial, and the scammers were convicted. I was awarded $21,300 in damages. But guess what? I was told the Ghana taxed court awards at 7%. When I sent this money, he guaranteed me that a check would be sent me by the Ghana embassy in Washington.

Now every day this attorney pesters me, saying I will lose the court award if I don’t pay the taxes soon. I wanted back-up evidence, and he sent me a scan of a court decree from the proceedings. Only trouble is, some words are not spelled correctly. It looks fishy to me. I remember that the phoney land deed was a very convincing piece of work.

Can anyone help me verify this policy of Ghana taxing victim compensation awards, and possibly verify the existence of the judge and the case number on this decree?

I hear it is common in Nigerian scams to offer “help” to a scam victim, in order to extract more money from them.

Kim Henry’
henrius@mindspring.com

I suppose they lead a pretty boring life-4th of July weekend and this is where they spend their time… lol

Church Street Health Management, LLC Managers

Taken from the 2010 Annual Report to the Kentucky Secretary of State:
Rodney Cawood – 618 Church Street Suite 520, Nashville, TN  37219
Jack Draughon –2928 Habersham Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30305
Charles Griffith – 4209 South Bellaire Circle, Englewood, Colorado 80113
Charles H. Ogburn – 3807 Vermont Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30319
Bowen Diehl – 2945 Stanford Avenue, Dallas Texas 75225"
Michael Lindley – 857 Curtiswood Lane, Nashville, TN  37204
Alford J. Smith – 1652 Jacobs Drive, Gallatin, TN  37066
Scott A. Buschmann – 75 14th Street 24th Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30309

Dental Associations receive nearly 50% of its monies from corporations

I’m sure this is quite normal, but there just seems like there is something wrong with it and I can’t lay my finger on exactly what it is.  Not right now anyway, if you could see my house you would understand.

Seems like receiving a discount for using particular companies is one thing, but if said companies actually contributes to nearly 50% of an organizations income that is whole other ball of wax.  I’m sure someone can enlighten me about this.

In the Tennessee Dental Associate 2010 Source Book it highly suggests it’s members use certain companies saying:

“When you use the services and products endorsed by the TDA, you not only obtain a good value but also assist in keeping TDA dues low. These companies provide the TDA with a royalty based on the amount of business generated by TDA members and their offices; non-dues revenue accounts for almost half of the TDA’s yearly income. When contacting these companies, tell them you are a TDA member”

Murder suspect arrested at place of employment–Kool Smiles!

Another example of the “quality” care brought to the “underserved” children by dental mills like Kool Smiles, Small Smiles and various others.

Ever wonder how well these dental mills vet their employees?  Not very damn well!

I mentioned in a post a month or two ago, I bet there were all kinds of criminals working in these places.  I had in mind, child molesters since abusing children sets pretty well with the folks there.

However, it’s accused murders as well! 

Just think of the children this dental hygienist had his hands on.  He is accused of suffocating a 26 year old woman to death in 2004.  Was he thinking about suffocating your child while he was so close to their little faces?  Was he thinking about putting your child in the Charles River where he is accused of dumping Julaine?  What about his co-workers?  Aren’t you Kool Smiles folks ready to blow the whistle wide open on this retched company.

Probably!  How could he not! 

Think of all the personal information this creep had at his disposal?  Scary!

Here is the woman he is accused of murdering.  Julaine Jules, a Hatiean-American woman who had worked at a children’s museum.